Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea was the fastest rider in the second World Superbike free practice outing at Imola, after posting a 1’48.147 but the session was cut short by 12 minutes due to a broken drain cover.
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes came close to setting a the quickest lap, with a 1’48.187 but by the smallest of margins came away from the opening day second fastest, with Aprilia’s Marco Melandri finishing up the top three, after his best lap of 1’48.207.
The session was initially delayed because of a drainage problem and sewage was on the track. Then moments later a red flag was waved due to fire on the outside of the circuit near Variante Tamburello, but the lappery was soon underway again.
Sykes was the first rider to better the time set by Ducati's Davide Giugliano this morning – a 1’48.187 after 27 minutes to go top of the timesheets. Just under the 30 minute mark Rea did a 1’48.147 to knock Sykes back to second, followed by Giugliano.
Melandri was out to make a point at his home track this afternoon. The diminutive Roman was third quickest with a 1’48.261 with thirteen minutes left to the session, to push his fellow countryman, Giugliano down to fifth. Aprilia's Sylvain Guintoli was sandwiched between the two Italian riders in fourth, going one tenth slower than his team-mate.
Then the second red flag of the session came out with twelve minutes remaining, with Rea leading the charge followed by Sykes, Melandri, Guintoli and Giugliano. The problem this time was that a drainage cover had broken at Variante Tamburello, and in the end the rest of the session was cancelled.
Ducati’s Chaz Davies missed out on a top five spot by two tenths and ended the day sixth fastest with a 1’48.592 followed by Pata Honda's Leon Haslam. The Smalley rider did improve from the morning’s outing and completed a 1’48.999 rotation of the Italian track.
Voltcom Suzuki’s Eugene Laverty went out straight away from his garage and was another rider who was able to better his race-pace. The Irishman was unable to reach the dizzy heights of the 1’48 bracket but came close – his best time was 1’49.259 to place him eighth on the timesheets with Kawasaki’s Loris Baz and BMW Italia’s Leon Camier completing the top ten.
The rather tall Kent lad was the leading Evo bike today – with his best time of 1’49.610. Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes narrowly missed out on a top ten spot, by one tenth of a second and ended his free practice in eleventh. Alstare’s Christian Iddon was seventeenth fastest on his Evo machine, after a 1’50.609.
