Aruba Ducati's Marco Melandri closed the gap to paceman Jonathan Rea in this afternoon's second WorldSBK session at Imola as the series leader was unable to improve on his time from this morning.
Rea's 1'46.951 from FP1 was enough to hold on to top spot but the Kawasaki-mounted champ worked on a race simulation, putting in 14 laps in the 1'47s bracket as the track temperature climbed.
Chaz Davies slipped back to third courtesy of his Aruba Ducati team-mate and didn't make any gains in terms of outright pace. Lorenzo Savadori, however, did upping his game to set a 1'37.704 for fourth place, edging Tom Sykes into fifth.
Sykes did improve his time to a 1'47.468 which was enough to put off a charging Jordi Torres ended the session in sixth on the MV Agusta. Xavi Fores was next along, improving in time but slipping to seventh.
Eugene Laverty finished in eighth place on the second Milwaukee Aprilia with Alex Lowes in ninth. Puccetti Kawasaki wildcard Leon Haslam finished in tenth place and 1.2s off the pace, taking the final automatic qualifying two slot.
Thunderstorms are threatening to descend on Imola this afternoon, so Michael van der Mark might not get a chance to make it into the top ten should rain fall. Aruba wunderkind Michael Ruben Rinaldi bagged 12th with Topratz in 13th. Roman Ramos and Loris Baz completed the top 15.
Leon Camier will not take part in the rest of the weekend's action as the physical nature of Imola is too much for the still-injured rider. Jason O'Halloran will now step-up from FP3 onwards.