Althea Ducati's Carlos Checa just managed to stay ahead of BMW's Leon Haslam in this morning's opening World Superbike free practice session at Imola after the Derbushire man found some pace with his final lap to get within three-tenths of the Spaniard.
Checa had put half a second's distance between himself and Yamaha's Marco Melandri with his last lap but Haslam's final circulation saw him jump from ninth to second with a 1'49.531 compared to Checa's 1'49.294 with Melandri on a 1'49.782.
Liberty Ducati's Jakub Smrz also stuck in a late one to go fourth fastest on a 1'49.910 which was enough to depose Castrol Honda's Jonathan Rea who had been sitting in second place with only a couple of minutes left on the clock.
The second Liberty bike of Sylvain Guintoli is in sixth place after slipping down the order from third but his 1'49.993 was enough to keep the Alstare Suzuki of Michel Fabrizio behind him. Ayrton Badovini, on the BMW Italia S1000RR, nipped into eighth just ahead of Leon Camer's Alitalia Aprila.
Eugene Laverty rounds out the top ten on his works Yamaha with PBM Kawasaki's Tom Sykes in 11th. Local wildcard Alex Polita is 12th on the Barni Ducati with Noriyuki Haga, Maxine Berger and Troy Corser completing the top 15.
