Kawasaki’s Loris Baz topped the opening World Superbike free practice session at a cloudy Donington Park circuit, and edged local rider, Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes into second in the process.

The Frenchman's last lap dash of 1’28.453 paid off, but Lowes was never outside the top three times throughout the 45 minute outing, but in the end was still two tenths slower than Baz, with the Kawasaki of Tom Sykes completing the top three after a 1’28.835.

Initially it was Lowes who set the pace with a 1’31.571 to top the timesheets after four minutes, followed by Pata Honda's Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam. But Northern Irishman Rea did a 1’30.835 to edge Lowes to second place. But the Derby-based Suzuki rider wasn’t giving up and was the first rider to lap inside the 1’29 bracket with 1’29.736 after ten minutes.

Sykes was in the mid-pack but the current out right lap holder made his mark with 35 minutes remaining to go second fastest with a 1’30.023, but could not topple Lowes from the provisional pole spot. But then Huddersfield’s finest went three tenths quicker to post a 1.29.431.

Aprilia's Sylvain Guintoli, who was a double podium winner last year at the track, soared into the top three with a 1’29.549 to knock Lowes down to third. The Lincolnshire lad did manage to regain a place on the timesheets but was only one-four hundredths of a second slower than Sykes after 25 minutes of lappery.

But on his tenth rotation Lowes clocked the quickest time of the opening free practice session so far smack bang on the 20 minute mark – with a 1’29.175. Elsewhere Laverty made his way into the top five with 14 minutes remaining, with Ducati’s Chaz Davies close behind, followed by the Kawasaki of Loris Baz and local lad, Haslam.

While the mid-table kept chopping and changing so did the top of the timing-screens – and this time it was Sykes who got the better of his younger counterpart, Lowes to go three tenths faster, and was the first rider to reach the 1’28 mark with a 1’28.835, with eight minutes to go.

Leicestershire based Frenchman, Guintoli put in a 1’29.172 to claw his way back to second on the 40 minute mark, at what is now essentially a home track for the Aprilia rider. But from out of nowhere Baz put in a time that was two tenths of a second quicker than his team-mate to top the timesheets with a 1’28.662, with less than five minutes of track time remaining. The Frenchmen was able to better that time as the session came to an end – by two tenths of a second.

With two minutes of track time left available to the riders a flurry of activity happened with many of them setting the best times of the day so far. Rea climbed from just inside the top ten to fourth, with his team-mate going up to fifth, taking Voltcom Suzuki's Eugene Laverty with him. When the chequered flag appeared Guintoli managed to sandwich himself between the Pata Honda bikes to go fifth quickest, with Haslam’s time of 1’29.154 placing him sixth, with Laverty in seventh.

Lowes tried a last lap dash, to stop Baz from heading the timesheets, but to no avail and had to settle for second quickest with Sykes completing the top three. Davies was not able to out perform his team-mate Davide Giugliano and was two tenths slower and ended up rounding off the top ten.

Althea Racing’s Niccolo Canepa was the leading Evo machine, in eleventh overall, with Brits, Alstare’s Christian Iddon and BMW Italia’s stand-in rider Leon Camier ending the morning fifteenth and sixteenth respectively.