Aprilia’s Jordi Torres topped the Jerez World Superbike third free practice timesheet in Spain this morning, setting the quickest lap of the weekend so far on a 1’41.405 to edge out former champion Tom Sykes by 0.029s while runaway series leader Jonathan Rea found himself down in ninth place and only just squeezing into an automatic Superpole two place.
Torres left until the end of his final run to bag top spot after Sykes had ruled the roost from almost the opening lap with a 1’41.434 before commencing a race run. Rea set a similar 1’41.856 not long after but didn’t go any quicker, also embarking on a race simulation wich saw him put in 15 laps around the 1’42 mark where as Sykes managed five laps in the mid-1’41s before slowing to low 1’42s.
Torres showed a similar pace to Sykes while team-mate Leon Haslam pushed into third place on the timesheets before crashing unhurt at the end of the session, going down at turn five after setting a 1’41.538 to end just a tenth slower than his team-mate.
Althea Ducati’s Matteo Baiocco grabbed fourth place with his final effort while Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, who is replacing the injured Davide Giugliano, ended in fifth place, one ahead of works team-mate Chaz Davies. Alex Lowes finished seventh but only three-tenths off the pace while Nico Canepa, on the second Althea Panigale, was as high as second with ten minutes left but slipped to eighth, one ahead of Rea.
Reigning world champion Sylvain Guintoli was tenth with Tati Mercado, Michael Van Der Mark and David Salom next along. Leon Camier found some pace overnight and reduced his gap to 0.816s while Randy De Puniet completed the top 15.
