Corser tops day two at the Island.

True to the sort of form he showed throughout 2005, reigning World Superbike champion Troy Corser set the pace on the second day of this week's group test at Phillip Island in his native Australia.

The Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider topped both the morning and afternoon sessions, edging AMA interloper - and fellow Aussie - Mat Mladin in the early outing, before Alstare team-mate Yukio Kagayama made sure of a 1-2 for the yellow Suzukis in the afternoon

Corser and Kagayama were the only two Alstare riders present, despite rumours that Max Biaggi would be joining them. The Italian, however, is scheduled to get a run win Midland F1's grand prix car at Silverstone today [Wednesday], casting further confusion over his alleged WSBK switch. With third team member Fabien Foret also not on track, Corser set the early pace at 1min 33.6secs, before improving his time to 1min 32.8secs in the afternoon. Kagayama was only fourth fastest in the morning, but closed up to his team-mate with a 1min 33.6secs effort after lunch.

Mladin's presence added a little extra spice to the proceedings, the multiple AMA Superbike champion lapping just three-tenths slower than Corser in the earlier session, but the US-based Suzuki rider was unable to keep pace with his rival after the break and dropped to third in the afternoon session.

Yamaha France had Norick Abe, Sebastien Gimbert and Shinichi Nakatomi on track, and it was the former who provided the closest challenge to the Suzuki riders, along with Foggy Petronas' Steve Martin. Abe pushed himself ahead of Kagayama, while Martin supplanted the Japanese Yamaha man in the second session.

Once again, the forecast rain held off, but the increasing breeze caused a few problems on the exposed circuit. Martin and rookie FPR team-mate Craig Jones both made progress in their programme, with the Briton becoming increasingly confident with the circuit and improving on his Monday lap time by over a second, but opted to sit out much of the afternoon session, along with others, as the strong winds began to affect handling and stability.

"I'm happy with my progress today, but it's a shame that the winds were so strong this afternoon," Jones lamented, "It limited the amount of laps we could do so, hopefully, it will die down tomorrow as it's too dangerous to ride at high speed. The wind just pushes you off line."

Leading performances - Phillip Island (18 January):

Troy Corser Suzuki 1m 33.6s 1m 32.8sYukio Kagayama Suzuki 1m 34.8s 1m 33.6sMat Mladin Suzuki 1m 33.9s 1m 33.9sSteve Martin Petronas 1m 34.8s 1m 34.0sNorick Abe Yamaha 1m 34.7s 1m 34.8sSebastien Gimbert Yamaha 1m 35.7s 1m 35.2sShinichi Nakatomi Yamaha 1m 36.9s 1m 35.8sCraig Jones Petronas 1m 37.8s 1m 36.7s

[Times shown AM/PM, with fastest time of day in bold]