Yakhnich Yamaha’s Sam Lowes was on form once again as he set the fastest time with more than twenty minutes remaining of the opening World Supersport free practice session, at Portimao this morning.
The Lincolnshire rider clocked a time of 1’46.046 and no other rider out on track was able to go quicker during the 45 minute session. Rivamoto’s Jack Kennedy had a stunning last lap, which saw him jump from seventh in the time-sheets to second with a 1’46.263 lap. The Dubliner was just languishing outside the top five for most of the morning, but on lap seventeen overtook the rest of the field to finish second fastest, behind Lowes.
It appeared that every rider made a last lap dash attempt in the dying seconds of free practice and Kennedy was not the only one who made an impact. Throughout the session it was a battle between the MAHI Racing team-mates Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret.
The Frenchman had been consistently faster than the reigning champ, but on his final lap, Sofuoglu overtook Foret in the time-sheets to go third quickest, with Foret having to contend with fifth place, just behind Kawasaki Intermoto’s Luca Scassa. The Italian was second fastest with less than a minute remaining, but last minute charges proved too much for the former British Superbike rider as his time of 1’46.516 was not fast enough to sustain a top three place.
Pata Honda’s Michael Van der Mark could not break into the 1’46 barrier and had to contend with a 1’47.010 lap, and ended the session sixth fastest, behind Foret.
DMC-Lorenzini rider Kev Coghlan ended the free practice with the eighteenth quickest time of 1’48.439. With less than twenty minutes of the session remaining the Scot did reach fourteenth fastest, but ended up finishing behind Kawasaki Intermoto’s David Salom, who returned this week to the Word Supersport class after being out with a hand injury, and has missed the last four races.
ParkinGO MV’s Christian Iddon remained outside the top twenty for the duration of the session and finished with a time of 1’48.887, but on his last lap did make the leap from 25th fastest to 22nd on the timesheets.
