Aprilia’s Marco Melandri edged his team-mate Sylvain Guintoli and Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty to lead the first World Superbike free practice session in Portugal, and was the first rider to lap in the 1’43’s this morning after a 1’43.880.

Initially it was Guintoli who came flying out of the starting blocks and straight away topped the timesheets with a 1’45.033 after only a handful of minutes out on the Portuguese track, with Pata Honda's Jonathan Rea and Laverty close behind.

Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam has had previous podium success at the track before, and it showed as after ten minutes he went into the provisional front row, only for Kawasaki's Tom Sykes to go faster -  with a 1’44.938 to go top.

But that was only to last seconds, as Melandri – who has won twice at this circuit before, went three tenths faster than the Yorkshireman to lead the field on the 30 minute mark. The Italian kept on improving his times and while Sykes was in the pits lapped a 1’44.447.

Ducati's Chaz Davies was on a roll and was consistently lapping in the 1’45’s and with 15 minutes left of the outing went into third overall – with a 1’44.925. But the Welshman was not the only rider making an impact – Laverty posted a 1’44.473 going one-three hundredths of a second slower than Melandri to place his Suzuki second on the timesheets, after 25 minutes.

Laverty’s rookie team-mate Alex Lowes was looking to emulate his Irish colleague and even though he was four tenths off the pace of his fellow Voltcom partner he was still fifth fastest overall with five minutes left.

Guintoli hadn’t given up on the charge and slotted into second on the timing screens – with three minutes remaining, to push Laverty and Sykes back down to fourth, followed in quick succession by Kawasaki team-mate Loris Baz and Lowes.

But when the chequered appeared there was a flurry of track activity, Baz managed to go one tenth quicker than his duelling team-mate to end the session in fifth, just behind Lowes who’s last lap dash paid off as a 1’44.620 put him  in a respectable fourth on the timesheets.

Elsewhere Haslam got the better of his garage buddy, Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea by one tenth to end the morning in seventh, with Davies and BMW Italia’s Evo rider Sylvain Barrier rounding off the top ten. Alstare's Christian Iddon finished in 13th on the timesheets on his Bimota BB3 Evo machine.

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