Red Devils Aprilia’s Jordi Torres topped the Phillip Island World Superbike second practice timesheets but was unable to displace Brit Alex Lowes from top spot on the combined time sheets.
Lowes had set a quickest time of 1’30.855 during the first session although the Englishman was unable to beat that, with a 1’31.734 his best.
The second practice session at Phillip Island saw little of the sort of action the opening session had, with only Leon Haslam, Michael Van Der Mark, Sylvain Guintoli and Troy Bayliss improving their efforts. The Aussie veteran spent most of the first period in the garage with a technical problem so could only start his setup work in the afternoon.
Haslam’s 1’31.466 was good enough to bring his Aprilia up to second place during the session and fourth overall, a result the Brit would have been desperate for considering his team-mate Torres’ exploits.
Tom Sykes continued initial progress on his Kawasaki ZX-10R, but his time of 1’31.670 was only able to get him third in the session.
Jonathan Rea and Chaz Davies will be quietly content with their work, safe in the knowledge that they’ll have bigger fish to fry come qualifying, with their respective times of 1’31.812 and 1’31.920 able to leave them reasonably happy.
Like Haslam, Van Der Mark, Guintoli and the returning Bayliss set their improved times on their final laps.
Van Der Mark’s 1’31.693 saw him sit in fourth place behind Sykes, while Guintoli’s improved 1’32.329 placed him eighth as Randy DePuniet’s 1’32.353 and David Salom’s 1’32.534 rounded out the top ten.
Leon Camier’s exploits during the first session proved difficult to match, with the MV Agusta rider finishing outside the top ten - the only British rider to do so - with his 1’33.131.
Bayliss, returning to the WSBK fold in place of the injured Davide Giugliano on the Ducati, made slight progress on his opening 1’34.060 but his 1’33.490 in the second session only pushed him into 17th in the session, still 18th overall.
Fastest laps
65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 15:31’46.999 1’41.279 157,999
65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 15:33’19.115 1’32.116 -9.163 173,716
65 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 15:34’50.927 1’31.812 -0.304 174,291
22 A. LOWES GBR VOLTCOM Crescent Suzuki Suzuki GSX-R1000 15:36’54.469 1’31.734 -0.078 174,439
66 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 15:39’09.387 1’31.670 -0.064 174,561
91 L. HASLAM GBR Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 15:47’14.861 1’31.645 -0.025 174,609
91 L. HASLAM GBR Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 15:48’46.327 1’31.466 -0.179 174,950
81 J. TORRES ESP Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 16:05’47.131 1’31.431 -0.035 175,017
81 J. TORRES ESP Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 16:08’54.420 1’31.324 -0.107 175,222
81 J. TORRES ESP Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 16:11’57.383 1’31.306 -0.018 175,257
81 J. TORRES ESP Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils Aprilia RSV4 RF 16:20’12.172 1’31.242 -0.064 175,380
Top speeds
1 81 J. TORRES Aprilia RSV4 RF 308,6
2 91 L. HASLAM Aprilia RSV4 RF 305,9
3 1 S. GUINTOLI Honda CBR1000RR SP 305,9
4 7 C. DAVIES Ducati Panigale R 305,9
5 65 J. REA Kawasaki ZX-10R 305,1
