BMW's Marco Melandri topped the first World Superbike free practice timesheet at Assen this morning less than two-tenths ahead of fellow MotoGP exile Carlos Checa while Tom Sykes bagged third spot and is only a fraction slower than the reigning world champion.
Melandri and Checa traded times right at the end of the session with the Italian's 1'37.582 winning out. Althea Ducati's Checa put in a 1'37.711 which topped Sykes from the number one spot with two minutes to go. The Kawasaki man is on a 1'37.781 while Michel Fabrizio, who was there or thereabouts from half-distance, took third on a 1'37.891.
Honda's Jonathan Rea slid from third to fifth as faster men went ahead of him but managed to remain just under six-tenths of a second off the pace and one place ahead of Leon Haslam who languished at the foot of the table until a setup change saw him bounce into the top five but slip to sixth as the clock counted down.
Ayrton Badovini took seventh place on his satellite BMW Italia S1000RR while Eugene Laverty parked his Aprilia in eighth on a 1'38.298, seven-tenths in arrears. His team-mate and former champion Max Biaggi had a disaster, however, and could only manage 17th place and is 1.3s slower than the leaders.
Former Ducati MotoGP wunderkind Nico Canepa was ninth with Maxime Berger the leading Effenbert Ducati in tenth place. Checa's team-mate Davide Guigliano is 11th and one place ahead of Leon Camier's Fixi Suzuki. The Kent man had been third early on but slid down the order to end up one place ahead of team-mate John Hopkins. Jakub Smrz, who had a technical issue at the start of the session while leading, and Sylvain Guintoli, on the sister Effenbert bike, rounded out the top 15. Chaz Davies was 21st.
