Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes left it till his final lap to storm to the top of the World Superbike opening qualifying practice session in Moscow this afternoon. The Yorkshire lad was the most consistent and dominant rider out on the circuit and was leading the timesheets for the majority of the session. But with one minute remaining Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano put in an impressive time of 1’35.615 that pushed Sykes back to second.
Huddersfield’s finest was not going to settle for a provisional second spot on the grid and made sure his last lap dash counted, and it did. He managed to go one tenth of a second quicker than the Italian.
GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri made his way into the top three quickest times with four minutes to go with a 1’35.891, followed by Ducati Alstare’s Carlos Checa. The former champ was the leading bike after ten minutes, but Sykes and Giugliano were too strong this afternoon and Checa ended the session in fourth followed by Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty, who was only four tenths of a second off the pace of Sykes.
Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier improved from his lack lustre opening free practice session to climb to sixth quickest in first qualifying, with his 1’36.013 lap, a second quicker than this morning. Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea was 0.7 seconds behind the tall Kent lad, with Red Devils Roma rider Michel Fabrizio not far behind in eighth.
GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies rounded off the top ten. Three tenths of a second behind the Welshman was Pata Honda’s Leon Camier who finished the session twelfth quickest with his best lap of 1’36.585. Aprilia's Sylvain Guintoli is recovering from a dislocated collarbone, which he sustained after falling off his push bike last Sunday. But he is feeling well enough to race this weekend and ended the session fourteenth fastest with a 1'36.820 lap.
