Althea Ducati World Superbike rookie Davide Guigliano headed the first free practice session at Brno this morning, pinching top spot from former champion Max Biaggi with only a few minutes left on the clock.
The reigning European Superstock 1000 title holder went round in 2'00.359 compared to Biaggi's 2'00.602 but the Roman Emperor was also beaten back by Jakub Smrz, on the Liberty Ducati, and his own team-mate Eugene Laverty who slipped into second and third places respectively at the end of the 45 minutes.
Smrz is two-tenths behind his Ducati stablemate while Laverty is three one-hundredths further back and only seven one-thousandths ahead of Biaggi. After leading early on, Tom Sykes slipped back to fifth place but is only a quarter of a second off the pace with Marco Melandri in sixth.
Carlos Checa put his Althea bike in seventh with Loris Baz, Ayrton Badovini and Michel Fabrizio rounding out the top ten. Leon Camier headed a gaggle of Brits in 11th with Chaz Davies and Leon Haslam behind him. Jonathan Rea escaped a big crash but now has a fairly second-hand Fireblade, finishing the session in 17th.
