Althea BMW’s Jordi Torres bagged top spot in the opening World Superbike free practice session at Lausitzring this morning when he edged past Britain’s Alex Lowes by less than a tenth of a second at the German circuit.
Pata Yamaha’s Lowes had been in control with a 1’37.872 but Torres had other ideas and posted a 1’37.775 with only three minutes left on the clock but the Italian is still some three-quarters of a second slower than the best times reported by teams after testing last month.
MV Agusta’s Leon Camier was third on the sheets, setting a 1’37.914 - half a second outside his best time from testing - and is consistently fast in sectors two and four but the weight and speed of the ageing MV is again hampering the former British Superbike Champion as he is contending with a 8mph deficit through the speed trap.
Yamaha-bound Michael Van Der Mark and team-mate Nicky Hayden are in fourth and fifth places, setting 1’37.927 and 1’38.102 respectively on the soon0to-be-replaced Fireblade.
Former champion Tom Sykes has made the most progress so far as the works Kawasaki man has only ridden the Lausitzring on a roadbike in testing. Sykes put in a 1’38.302 for sixth place, just ahead of the returning Markus Reiterberger.
The German has regularly races here but only on his IDM-spec bike and, due to injury, didn’t test alongside Torres. He put in a 1’38.309 for seventh place, one ahead of Chaz Davies. The Aruba Ducati rider is six-tenths off the pace and 1.4s slower than his best test time.
Sylvain Guintoli, who is also returning from injury, put in a 1’38.364 for ninth while reigning champion Jonathan Rea - who vanned his own ZX-10R track bike for testing purposes - completed the top ten with a 1’38.720 but you can expect the Isle of Man resident to bounce back this afternoon.
Davide Giugliano, Xavier Fores, Alex De Angelis - who crashed late on - Anthony West and Lorenzo Savadori complete the top 15 with Josh Brookes in 16th. Looks like another tough weekend for the outgoing Milwaukee BMW man after his team elected to continue their non-testing policy.
