Parkingo Aprilia's Chaz Davies was the leading British rider in today's opening World Superbike free practice session at Moscow this morning, taking second place behind top dog Marco Melandri who was half a second quicker than the Welshman.
The BMW man set 1'35.799 to go quickest from Althea Ducati's Davide Guigliano with only five minutes left and then Davies snuck into second place a couple of laps later on a 1'36.325 which was only 0.019s faster than the fast-improving Italian.
Pata Ducati continue to be rewarded for their faith in Sylvain Guintoli as he put their 1098R in fourth place, one ahead of shock fifth-placed man Hiro Aoyama on the Ten Kate Honda. The Japanese former MotoGP star is seven-tenths off the pace and one place ahead of reigning champion Carlos Checa - but only by a gnats.
Nico Canepa, also Ducati-mounted, is seventh with Leon Haslam, who was second quickest in Wednesday's test, eighth and the second Honda of Jonathan Rea in ninth. Ayrton Badovini rounds out the top ten.
Kawasaki's Tom Sykes finished one place behind Haslam in the official test so will be scratching his head as to why he is in 12th and behind John Hopkins while Eugene Laverty is in 15th place but two places ahead of his factory Aprilia team-mate Max Biaggi. Leon Camier hit Loris Baz's prone Kawasaki on the start/finish straight and crashed while flat out. Both were unhurt but are in 18th and last places respectively because of the incident.
