As always at the beginning of a season, Pirelli has taken a large number of tyres made with new mixes or profiles to Valencia for the first in a round of three test sessions. In particular Pirelli have prepared 10 front and 9 rear tyres for Superbike World Championship, and 8 front and 6 rear for Supersport World Championship. The best of these will then be selected for further development ready for the first half of the season, though the first two races in Qatar and Australia will still be run on the best performing tyres selected from last season. Teams and riders in Valencia have already expressed positive opinions on a couple of new front tyres, including one larger size tyres with a wider cross section. Of the new rear tyres, three with modified mixes have received the thumbs up while the jury is still out on the new ‘jumbo tyre’, which Pirelli will test again more conclusively in Qatar. Proof of the excellent work already done by Pirelli comes in the form of consistently faster lap times in both SBK and Supersport.