BMW's Marco Melandri fended off a British charge to the top of the timesheets in this morning's opening World Superbike free practice session at a dry Motorland Aragon.
The still-recovering Italian stole top spot from team-mate Chaz Davies with his final lap of the session after the Welshman had pushed Kawasaki's Tom Sykes into second place with his final lap.
Sykes had been leading until the final push which saw Melandri set a 1'58.510 and go almost half a second faster than Davies, himself a little over a tenth quicker than Sykes whose last flying lap was a 1'59.227.
Eugene Laverty had hauled himself up into third place with five minutes left to run, but the Aprilia man was pushed back to fourth when Davies put in his last flier. Fixi Suzuki's Leon Camier took fifth place on a 1'59.748 with Jonathan Rea's Pata Honda next along.
Team-mate Leon Haslam was seventh on a 2'00.135, just ahead of Loris Baz on the second Kawasaki. Joint series leader Sylvain Guintoli was ninth and Carlos Checa tenth on a 2'00.624.
