Shane 'Shakey' Byrne ended his opening day of testing in Cartagena early after the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider suffered a high-side in the afternoon session which left him bruised, bringing his progress today to a premature end after a productive start for the former double champion.

Byrne and the team arrived at the circuit this morning after completing a two day shakedown test in Aragon at the end of the week and after his first stints on track he was already feeling happy with the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki. However, whilst preparing to do some laps with the team's Metzeler National Superstock 1000 Championship contender Keith Farmer, 'Shakey' crashed out in what has been described as a 'freak accident' by team manager Paul Risbridger and will now wait until the morning to return to the track.

Shakey tweeted:

"Massive high side this afternoon, feeling a little bit second hand right now I was just about to help to show my team mate around then booomm!"


It wasn't just Byrne that suffered a crash at the circuit today; Swan Yamaha's Noriyuki Haga slid off at the hairpin earlier in the day. However he was able to ride the bike back to the pitlane and continue the test sessions.

Easton meanwhile was happy returning to the track again and feels more comfortable today after some initial laps at Aragon earlier in the week. Easton believes that with more laps on the bike his fitness will continue to improve and was feeling positive that he had already seen an improvement over the past three days.

Easton said:

"It has been a lot better here for me than it was at Aragon. To begin with I was a couple of seconds off Shakey on our very first laps and that was hard, but here I have been able to do some respectable times and have been feeling more comfortable. We have done some work on used tyres to make some changes and work with the new motec system so we can find more corner entry. Along the way we have also been able to make some small chassis changes. At the moment the bike is better than me as around my core I am still stiff and I just need to get bike fit again. That will come with laps but it has been a much better day for me so I am happy."

Team manager Paul Risbridger said:

"It has been good overall; we came here because it is a different track and that was what we needed. We still have plenty to work through and today it wasn't about lap times but picking up where we had left off in Aragon. Shakey had a crash this afternoon which was a freak one; he went out and did about four or five laps and then he was behind Keith Farmer, he was going to help him out. At the last corner he came past him, turned around to gesture to follow him and the bike just stepped out. Neither of them were pushing it, so it was strange. He high-sided and came down quite heavily from quite a height. He went to the medical centre to be checked out, but fortunately he is all ok other than feeling sore. Stuart meanwhile is feeling better on the bike and is loosening up."