Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes was the quickest rider out on the Nurburgring circuit in the first World Superbike free practice session this morning. The Yorkshireman topped the timesheets with seven minutes remaining with a 1’55.930 then was able to go one better with a 1’55.904.
Throughout the session Sykes had to contend with his young French team-mate, Loris Baz who was dominating the timing sheets until his more experienced colleague started clocking better lap times. After thirty minutes of being out on the track Baz set a 1’56.241, but was soon over thrown by GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies.
The Welshman who won at the track last year lapped a 1’56.222 going two hundredths of a second quicker than the Kawasaki of Baz. But it was not to last as fellow Brit, Sykes decided that he wanted to join in.
Red Devils Roma rider Michel Fabrizio came from the mid pack and clocked a time that propelled him to second in the timesheets just as the chequered flag came out, demoting Baz to third and Davies to fourth with his best lap of 1’55.932.
Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea was only one tenth of a second behind Davies to finish the morning practice session in fifth. The Isle of Man resident was hovering around the top ten quickest times but with ten minutes left he put in a time to place him comfortably inside the top five.
Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier pulled his way to fourth quickest with eight minutes to go, with a 1’56.576. But riders went quicker and the tall Kent lad was unable to improve and had to settle got seventh behind GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri. Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli, Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano and Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Jules Cluzel rounded off the top ten fastest times.
Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam was as high as eighth in the timesheets, with his 1’57.268, but even though he was able to improve on his time by one tenths of a second he finished the session just outside the top ten in thirteenth with Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty 0.02 seconds behind in fourteenth. The Irishman was the last rider to come out of the garage for the first practice session and only completed eight laps.
