Yakhnich Yamaha’s Sam Lowes dominated the opening World Supersport free practice session at the Nurburgring and was never really off the top of the timesheets with his best lap of 1’58.824.
He successfully out paced the rest of the grid including Pata Honda’s Michael Van der Mark, who waited till the final seconds of the outing to go second quickest with a 1’59.824 lap, with MAHI Racing’s Fabien Foret ending the morning in third with a 2’00.238.
Lowes was not initially the fastest rider on the German track, that was Foret, but with twenty minutes remaining the Derby lad went fastest and secured his place as the rider to beat this weekend.
DMC-Lorenzini rider Kev Coghlan had a consistent time out on track and was lapping in the 2’00’s throughout the 45 minute session. With two minutes left the Perthshire rider toppled Yakhnich Yamaha’s Vladimir Leonov from third with a 2’00.282. But Van Der Mark and Foret went faster again and the Scot slipped to fourth quickest, with Pata Honda’s Lorenzo Zanetti only seven thousandths of a second behind in fifth with a 2’00.589.
Reigning champ MAHI Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu was two seconds off the pace of the leading riders and ended the first free practice in eighth with his best lap if 2’00.734. But ParkinGO MV rider Christian Iddon was never far behind and ended the morning in ninth with a 2’00.765.
Rivamoto’s Jack Kennedy just missed out on a top ten quickest time, and ended the session in twelfth with a 2’00.931. World Supersport debutant, former Ambrogio Moto3 rider Danny Webb finished 29th fastest with a 2’02.456 with his PTR Honda team.
