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Assen WSBK: Sykes leads Rea in wet first practice

Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes has started his World Superbike weekend in the strongest possible fashion after topping first practice at Assen ahead of his team-mate Jonathan Rea.

Pata Yamaha duo Sylvain Guintoli and Alex Lowes put in similarly strong showings to sit third and fourth, respectively, after the opening session but it will be Sykes feeling most confident after a tough wet exercise in the Netherlands.

Rea had begun the brightest out of the main World Superbike principals, as a series of early laps from most of the grid saw Chaz Davies 2’01 at the top of the pile during the first learning laps before the Ulsterman got to work on his ZX-10R.

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An impressive three seconds were taken off Davies’ time as Rea began to get into a rhythm, posting a 1’58.894 to go top before bettering that three times in succession to get his efforts down to 1’55 and a clear three seconds ahead of Alex DeAngelis, Davies and Lowes.

That was how the first session remained for the next half hour with few coming close to the defending champion’s time and Honda – so impressive in the three previous rounds opening practices – struggling badly with homeboy Michael Van Der Mark tenth and Nicky Hayden 16th.

Van Der Mark had suffered an earlier crash at Meeuwenmeer, losing the rear on entering the corner as the Fireblade slid away from under him.

He wasn’t the only crasher in a difficult session, with Althea BMW’s Markus Reiterberger falling at the fast Ruskenhoek and Milwaukee BMW rider Karel Abraham suffering a small crash in the same place early on while Davies went down unhurt late in the session at the Geert Timmer chicane.

With just under 20 minutes left, Lowes made an exciting attempt for the top of the pile, going third – and hitting 270km/h in the process – before upgrading that to second on his very next lap.

Sykes, who had hitherto been mostly anonymous in a trying session, then went third with a 1’57.209 and that was the launchpad for his assault on the top, as he struck a 1’55 next time around and consolidated that twice, sneaking into the 1’54 bracket in the process.

There was little time remaining in the session for anyone to challenge the Yorkshireman’s proficient efforts in the wet of Assen but Yamaha’s Guintoli was able to bump his team-mate down to fourth with a late lap in the 1’55s.

Other late laps saw Xavi Fores claw his way up to sixth on the Barni Racing Team Ducati, just behind Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies and marginally ahead of Nicky Hayden who brought his Honda up to seventh in the dying seconds.

A superb ride from Alex DeAngelis saw him finish eighth, ahead of Lorenzo Savadori and the second Aruba.it Ducati of Davide Giugliano.

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Leon Camier narrowly missed out on a top ten finish in the opening session on his MV Agusta, ending up just 0.011s off Giugliano, while Michael Van Der Mark endured a disappointing FP1 finishing 13th.

Elsewhere, Jordi Torres finished 16th and reigning BSB champion Josh Brookes ended the session 18th fastest.

Their team-mates, Markus Reiterberger and Karel Abraham, failed to get within the required time bracket with both finshing a whopping nine seconds off Sykes unsurpassed efforts.

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