GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri was the quickest rider in this mornings opening World Superbike free practice session, as he topped the time-sheets with less than five minutes to go with a 1’36.101 lap, which demoted fellow Italian, Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano to second.
Melandri was only seven hundredths of a second faster than the Aprilia rider, but it was enough for the Roman to narrowly clinch the top spot. Giugliano did dominate for the majority of the session and after only fifteen minutes stormed to the top followed by Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes and Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty.
Ducati Alstare’s Carlos Checa appears that he has recovered from his shoulder injury that has plagued the former champ for the past few months and did clock the second quickest time with only seven minutes to go, with a 1’36.539, but it was not enough as Giugliano and Sykes went one tenths of a second faster, pushing Checa down to fourth. Sykes’ young team-mate Loris Baz rounded off the top five with a 1’36.724 lap.
GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies was nearly a second off the pace of his team-mate, Melandri and ended the session seventh on the timesheets, followed closely Laverty, Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Jules Cluzel, with Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea rounding off the top ten. The Northern Irishman was unable to lap in the 1’36’s and had to settle for a 1’37.190 time with the two Leon’s, Camier and Haslam ending the session eleventh and twelfth respectively.
Crocked Aprilia rider Sylvain Guintoli did attempt a few laps around the Russian circuit, but could not make his way into the top ten fastest times and ended the morning with a 1’37.881 lap, meaning he finished thirteenth on the timesheets.
