PTR Honda's Sam Lowes has secured a provisional front-row start for Sunday's first World Supersport race in Russia despite an early crash that put him out of action for the remainder of the session.
The former British Supersport Champion went down at turn two after just ten minutes but the time he set on his third of four laps was enough to top the timesheets almost to the end when he was just pipped by double world champion and title rival Kenan Sofuoglu.
Pre-spill, Lowes had gone round in 1'38.179 which stood until there was only ten minutes left to go. Sofuoglu went out on his final run and edged ahead of Lowes by three-tenths with Honda's Broc Parkes in third and Lowes' team-mate Jules Cluzel in fourth. Local man Vladimir Leonov is fifth but three-quarters of a second off the pace.
"We crashed and only managed to do four laps in the qualifying so it's not perfect but we've made big progress with the bike today. I did four laps on the hardest of the tyres and managed to do a 1'38.1, which kept me in second position, so it's not a problem. I'm looking forward to tomorrow now as I know that with this bike we can do a very good lap time as well as a very good race on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to it," said Lowes.
Martin Jessopp, on another PTR Honda, finished in 25th with the MDS N-G Kawasaki of Dan Linfoot one place behind. The pair are a little over three seconds off the pace.
