MAHI Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu was the fastest World Supersport rider out on a very wet Donington Park track in the first free practice session of the day. The reigning champion completed four laps of the English circuit, and was the only rider to break into the 1’35 barrier, with a lap time of 1’35.996.

The free practice did start off dry and with 40 minutes remaining Rivamoto’s Jack Kennedy went to the top of the time sheets with a 1’36.980 lap, but it was not enough and as the chequered flag came out he was not able to improve on his time and finished in seventh.

The white flag came out half way through the session, and the weather conditions began to get worse, with the riders deciding to remain in their garages, rather than brave the wet and windy British weather. Some did venture out on the track, DMC-Kawasaki rider Kev Coghlan came out of the pits, and even though he completed ten laps of the track he could not improve on his earlier lap time of 1’40.111, meaning he finished with the twentieth fastest time.

RLR Motorsport’s wild-card Sam Hornsey was also not put off by the rain and persisted out of the circuit, but was not fast enough to overtake fellow Brit, Coghlan on the timesheets and finished in 21st place. Another wild card, British Supersport Smiths Triumph rider Glen Richards left it until there was only five minutes left out on track to make his first appearance in World Supersport this year, but could not get himself off the bottom of the time-sheets. His fellow British Supersport team-mate, Aussie Billy McConnell did fair a bit better and made it inside the top twenty, with a lap time of 1’40.111.

ParkinGo MV’s Christian Iddon completed four laps, but could not push himself into the top five quickest times, and had to contend with ninth with a lap of 1’37.072. Current World Supersport leader, Yakhnich rider Sam Lowes only completed one lap, and then went back into his Russian team’s garage, and did not make it on to the free practice time-sheet.

None of the British riders made it into the top five fastest lap times, as Pata Honda’s Lorenzo Zanetti finished the session with the second quickest time of 1’36.171, followed by Team Lorini’s Raffaele De Rosa in third. ParkinGO MV’s Roberto Rolfo did better than team-mate Iddon as he completed the session with a 1’36.175 lap, with Kawasaki Intermoto's Luca Scassa rounding off the top five.

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