Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli had the slight edge over Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes during the first World Superbike free practice session at Laguna Seca. The Frenchman was never outside the top five times throughout the whole outing, and pipped the current champ to the post by three tenths of a second.

Sykes’ best time of 1’24.097 - clocked with only three minutes remaining - was not enough to topple the England-based Frenchman, but he did hold off the charges from his team-mate, Marco Melandri, who rounded up the top three with a 1’24.155.

Unsurprisingly, it was the men who have MotoGP experience at the California track who led the way, plus Ducati's Chaz Davies who raced in AMA before his switch to World Supersport and did ride the Pramac Ducati as a stand-in.

Initially it was Guintoli who set the pace, early into the session and was trailed by Melandri, and circuit debutant Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea. Soon Sykes was creeping up on the Aprilia duo, and a 1’24.812 was enough to place him third, with 26 minutes remaining.  Davies made his mark after 20 minutes and his previous track knowledge paid off as he pushed the dominant Aprilias off the top of the time-sheets with a 1’24.300.

But the Welshman’s former team-mate was not having any of it, and Melandri went two tenths quicker to go fastest. With five minutes remaining  a gaggle of riders made their move on the top five. Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam lapped a 1’24.410 to go fourth, with Voltcom Suzuki’s rookie rider, Alex Lowes going into the top ten.

Meanwhile with only a handful of minutes left, Guintoli put down a 1’23.861, and was the first rider to lap inside the 1’23 bracket. Sykes was soon fighting back, and stormed back into second place. As the chequered flag came out the reigning champ had a chance to put in a last lap dash, but he could not out-pace the Frenchman.

Elsewhere Melandri, Davies and Rea completed the top five. Haslam was unable to improve on his best time and slipped back to seventh at the flag. Eugene Laverty won the battle of the Voltcom Suzuki bikes, and was able to go two tenths quicker than his Derby-based colleague.

Alstare’s Christian Iddon, onboard his Bimota BB3 Evo machine finished the opening session in 15th – after his best time of 1’26.432. Leon Camier was back in the World Superbike class, but this time he was not on the BMW Italia Evo bike, but was acting as a stand-in rider for the injured Claudio Corti on board the Reparto Corse machine. The tall Kent lad ended the morning in 26th on the timing-screens.

Click here for times