Pata Yamaha’s Sylvain Guintoli was the fastest man in World Superbike free practice two at Phillip Island this morning, finishing the session an impressive 0.38s ahead of Honda’s Michael Van Der Mark with the Kawasaki of Jonathan Rea down in third.
Guintoli snatched top spot from Van Der Mark with just over 15 minutes left in the session and the Frenchman’s 1’30.865 was unsurpassable in the remaining minutes as he gave Yamaha a dream start to their return to World Superbike.
Van Der Mark was impressive throughout the second free practice session on the Fireblade as the young Dutchman posted plenty of fast, consistent laps and although he was pipped to the practice plaudits by Guintoli he will be confident ahead of Superpole tomorrow.
Jonathan Rea took third on the Kawasaki and if last season is anything to go by the Ulsterman will be quietly content with his first sessions of 2016, as he appeared to build up to a peak in each round in 2015.
Rea will have been desperate to finish ahead of his team-mate following Tom Sykes’ appreciation and enjoyment of the new ZX-10R and the champion did just that as the Yorkshireman came home fourth, ahead of a superb effort from Leon Camier.
MV Agusta rider Camier has begun 2016 with a bang and after his FP1 fourth-placed finish he backed that up with an impressive fifth in front of Honda’s Nicky Hayden and the Aruba.it Ducati duo of Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies.
Lorenzo Savadori made notable progress on the Ioda Racing Aprilia as he took ninth with Alex Lowes unable to sneak his Pata Yamaha into Superpole two on the combined sheets as Markus Reiterberger’s earlier time secured the German tenth.
That leaves an exciting looking line-up for Superpole one at Phillip Island, with the Milwaukee BMW pair of Josh Brookes and Karel Abraham – disappointingly 18th and 20th as they work through some bike issues – joined by the likes of Lowes, Jordi Torres and possibly Xavi Fores and Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Both Fores and Razgatlioglu – making his Superbike debut as a replacement for Grillini’s Josh Hook – had falls during the session, with the former set to be assessed after FP3 due to a knee injury sustained during the crash at turn 12 while Razgatlioglu has seemingly been declared unfit by the Medical Director and diagnosed with a fracture of his left medial malleolus (ankle).
