Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes ended the final timed World Superbike free practice session at his home round with the quickest time of the day to take the provisional pole spot, from Ducati’s Davide Giugliano.
Ten minutes into the session Sykes was the quickest rider with a 1’27.840, blasting his lap record he set back last year by two tenths.
At the beginning of the session the white flags came out with spots of rain falling on sectors three and four of the Leicestershire circuit as the storm clouds started to gather overhead, but that didn't seem to put the riders off the pace.
Aprilia’s Marco Melandri appeared to have found his form quite late in the day. The Roman was hanging onto a place in the top ten, but a 1’28.467 propelled him to sixth, pushing his former BMW team-mate Davies to tenth, and close to not going automatically into Superpole two.
Kawasaki’s Loris Baz was fourth quickest, but fell at Redgate, prematurely ending his session. But the young Frenchman had done enough to secure his place in Superpole two. With Baz down and out for the afternoon Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli was able to take advantage of the crashing Kawasaki rider and went into third fastest a 1’28.132 lap, to place him on the provisional front row.
Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes safely made it into Superpole two, ending the day fifth quickest after a 1’38.187 lap. His Irish team-mate, Eugene Laverty finished two places below, followed by Pata Honda pairing of Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam.
Baz was not the only rider to crash – Davies fell in exactly the same place two laps later, but he held on to the top ten spot by the skin of his teeth, after his 1’28.947 was enough to stop him dropping into Superpole one territory.
Fellow Brits BMW Italia’s Leon Camier and Alstare’s Christian Iddon, both on Evo bikes, will have to battle it out in Superpole one after finishing the final timed FP3 twelfth and thirteenth respectively.
Entrants for Superpole two:
Sykes
Giugliano
Guintoli
Baz
Lowes
Melandri
Laverty
Rea
Haslam
Davies
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