Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes toughed it out with reigning World Superbike Champion Tom Sykes in the opening session of testing at Phillip Island but had to give best by a little less than three-tenths of a second to the Kawasaki man.
Series rookie Lowes, who hadn’t ridden at the Australian circuit until yesterday, took the lead with his 22nd lap of the period on a 1’30.748. He managed to stay there while the top men came in for new tyres but was then shoved out by the works Ducati of Davide Guigliano, who banged in a 1’30.715.
Sykes had been loitering in eighth place and a little way off the pace but came sraight out of the pits with a soft tyre on to go third and then top with his next lap of 1’30.239, just 0.002s slower than Carlos Checa’s outright record.
Lowes was not to be outdone and with his final lap of the session took back second from Aprilia’s Marco Melandri, who jumped ahead of Guigliano, finishing on a 1’30.528 and just outside team-mate Eugene Laverty’s table-topping time from yesterday.
Sylvain Guintoli, who had led for a good portion of the session, was demoted to fifth but he and Aprilia team-mate Melandri appear to have recovered some of the RSV4’s speed advantage, posting top speeds of 196.7 and 198mph respectively.
Laverty, whose top speed yesterday must have come from a tow as he was down to 192.3 today, ended in sixth and just over a half a second off the pace, just in front of the Pata Honda men Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea, who were within a tenth of each other.
Loris Baz took a tumble at the Southern Loop early on and only completed six laps to finish the session in ninth, one place ahead of Chaz Davies on the second factory Panigale. He is still only eight-tenths of a second off.
Nico Canepa was again the quickest of the Evo bikes on his 1199, followed by David Salom and Fabien Foret, both on Kawasakis. Sylvain Barrier and Michel Fabrizio didn’t take part after their crashes yesterday.
