Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea stormed to the top of the time-sheets once again in the World Superbike second qualifying practice at Portimao, in a repeat of yesterday afternoon.
It must feel like déjà-vu for Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty as he had to contend with being the second fastest rider out on the Portuguese circuit for the second time this week. The Irishman clocked his fastest time with less than ten minutes remaining with a 1’42.738 lap, soaring him to a provisional pole position. But with two minutes left, Rea put in an impressive 1’42.645 lap, which toppled Laverty to second.
Not far off Laverty’s pace was his team-mate Sylvain Guintoli. The Frenchman continued to set consistent times, and was never out of the top three fastest times during the 45 minute session, but he was not quick enough to out pace his team-mate, with his quickest time of 1’42.787.
GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri did dominate the early part of the session, and with thirty minutes still to go clocked the quickest time of 1’42.933. But no matter how hard the Italian tried he could not improve on his time, and had to watch the likes of Laverty, Guintoli, and Rea who went 0.3 seconds quicker, overtake him in the time-sheets.
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes experienced a technical problem at the start of his time out on the track, but managed to resolve the issue to make it out of the pits to get some time out on the circuit. On this occasion he was not able to make it into the 1’42’s and had to end the session with a 1’43.099 lap.
Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier improved from his times from the first qualifying practice to finish this morning with the sixth fastest time, just behind Sykes with a 1’43.516. GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies ended the final qualifying practice of the day with a 1’43.599 lap, resulting in him finishing with the ninth fastest time, just in front of Kawasaki’s Loris Baz, who rounded off the top ten.
Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam is still struggling with a leg injury, and was in a lot of pain yesterday. But he did complete eight laps this morning and ended the session with the thirteenth fastest time of 1’44.354, just behind Ducati Alstare’s Carlos Checa.