Honda's Jonathan Rea put his recent MotoGP wet-weather track time to good use at Magny-Cours this morning, bagging top spot in the opening World Superbike free practice session with his final lap, demoting Sylvain Guintoli to second.
The Irishman, who will not ride at the Motegi round after the return of Casey Stoner, headed Pata Ducati's Guintoli by less than a tenth of a second on a 1'39.064 while Leon Camier also put in a fast last run, hopping from outside the top ten into third as the track dried with a 1'39.335.
Kawasaki's title challenger Tom Sykes was also in the fight for top spot, leading several times but he was eventually shuffled down to fourth but only a little over three-tenths off the pace with a 1'39.414. Davide Guigliano placed fifth with series leader Max Biaggi slipping from third to sixth late on.
BMW's Leon Haslam highsided at Chateau d'Eau on lap three, injuring his hand but went back out to set the seventh fastest time. He is one place ahead of still-injured team-mate Marco Melandri, who is riding with taped-up ribs. The Italian is a little under a second off the pace but these conditions will make his life easier.
Soon-to-be-not champion Carlos Checa was ninth fastest with the second Aprilia of Eugene Laverty in tenth. Lorenzo Zanetti was 11th, the BMW Italia bikes of Michel Fabrizio and Ayrton Badovini next along with John Hopkins and Maxime Berger rounding out the top 15.
Chaz Davies had a technical problem and didn't record a lap and Loris Baz also suffered a problem with 15 minutes gone while Moto2 exile Claudio Corti managed 18th fastest on his WSBK debut.
