On a day that saw three 45 minute Free Practice sessions for the WorldSBK riders, the final one deciding the 20 riders that will make it through to todays’s Tissot-Superpole sessions it was FP3 that saw the most activity as well as the fastest time as Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) ended day one on combined times as the fastest rider to lap the 4.023km Donington Park circuit, the top 13 covered by 0.953s
The Kawasaki rider’s time of 1.28.172 was less than a tenth of a second from his own race lap record set in 2013 and kept the former champion 0.111s ahead of the opposition.
Davide Giugliano crashed his Aruba.it Racing Ducati SBK Team entry after moving into 2nd with 3 minutes to go, the Italian was able to stay ahead of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) who finished 3rd after also improving in the final session of the day.
Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) showed no ill effects of the rib injury from Imola, moving closer to the fastest time in 4th ahead of compatriots Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) who were 5th and 6th.
Ayrton Badovini kept BMW Motorrad Italia in contention in 7th ahead of Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) and Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing).
WorldSBK rookie Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) just missed out on the top ten finishing 11th on his Donington debut, ahead of Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), David Salom (Team Pedercini), Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) and the youngest rider on the grid Christophe Ponsson (Team Pedercini) who were the final riders in the top 15.
The final rider to make it into Tissot-Superpole was Santiago Barragan (Grillini SBK Team) who edged Imre Toth (BMW Team Toth) in the final half of FP3 to secure 20th.
FP2Surprises in the top 6 continue at Donington in FP2
In what could be a decisive session, former World Champion Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) moved to the top of the WorldSBK timesheets after another close FP2 at Donington Park that saw the fastest FP1 time of 1.29.314s set by Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) bettered by almost a second as the top 20 riders all improved their times.
The session saw 7 manufacturers inside the top ten as the WorldSBK riders closed in on the lap record time of 1.28.074s that was set by Sykes in 2013 with the top ten decided in the closing seconds.
Behind Sykes, last year’s Pole Setter Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) and Jonathan Rea on the second KRT machine rounded out the top three ahead of Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) who proved that his FP1 pace was no fluke.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) dropped to 5th overall ahead of Leon Camier who continued his solid start to the weekend in 6th. The Andorran resident finished just ahead of the ever improving Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) who put himself into contention in 7th before the podium finisher from 12 months ago slid from his machine unhurt with 5 minutes of the session to go.
Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing) was a big improver from this morning, elevating himself into 8th ahead of Dutchman Michael van der Mark who left it until his final lap to put his Pata Honda into 9th. Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) finished 10th.
Currently 11th, and hoping to improve by 2 tenths of a second that would see him into Superpole 1 tomorrow (as it stands) is reigning champion Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike). The French rider is marginally ahead of David Salom who currently lies 12th in the combined standings.
The third and final Free Practice session that will decide who gets to fight for the Pole Position today takes place at 1630 local time. Following this session the top 10 on combined times will automatically proceed to Superpole 2. They will be joined by the riders placed 1st and 2nd in Superpole 2 which will see the riders placed 11th to 20th after FP3 taking part.
