Ducati’s Davide Giugliano let it till his last lap to post the quickest time so far in the second World Superbike free practice session at Donington Park – with a 1’28.082 to place his bike on provisional pole.
Kawasaki’s Loris Baz and Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes tried in the final seconds of the session to beat the time set by the Italian, but however hard they tried they could not go quicker than the Ducati rider. Giugliano was only one-one hundredths of a second off the lap record set by Sykes in 2013.
With 30 minutes remaining Sykes pipped his team-mate Baz to the post to place his Kawasaki on provisional pole with a 1’28.344, only three tenths off the lap record he set last year.
Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes had a low-side at Melbourne, but managed to get back on the bike to continue with the session, while he was third fastest. After 20 minutes Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty out-paced his team-mate to go into third with a 1’28.495 lap.
The session was red flagged with 17 minutes of track time left, after debris was found out on track after an earlier crash of Team Go Eleven’s Jeremy Guarnoni, but soon the riders were back out on the English circuit.
Guintoli bettered his time in the earlier session to place himself fourth fastest after 30 minutes, with a 1’28.504, pushing Lowes even further down the timesheets to fifth. But the Lincolnshire lad hadn’t given up just yet and did a 1’28.187 on the stroke of the five minute mark – after a 1’28.187 rotation. Baz put in a 1’28.220, but that was only enough to place his Kawasaki second fastest, demoting Sykes to third.
Giugliano came from sixth to the vey top of the timesheets, just as the chequered flag came out after a 1’28.082 lap, with Baz second quickest with Lowes rounding off the provisional front row.
Sykes and Guintoli completed the top five, with Laverty in hot pursuit. The Pata Honda duo of Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam were locked in a mini-battle, with the Northern Irishman getting the better of the Smalley rider, with one-two thousandths of a second between the pair.
Ducati’s Chaz Davies could not match the pace of his Italian colleague and finished the second free practice session ninth, with Aprilia’s Marco Melandri completing the top ten.
Althea Racing’s Niccolo Canepa had a technical problem at Redgate, while he was the leading Evo bike in the field, and ended the outing in eleventh. BMW Italia’s Leon Camier and Alstare’s Christian Iddon on their Evo spec machines finished the session in fourteenth and fifteenth positions.
