Mahi Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu remains at the top of the World Supersport free practice timesheets, and the provisional pole spot at Portimao, as no other rider could better the time set by the Turkish racer in FP2 of 1’46.400 - which was clocked in the first free practice session, this morning.
Pata Honda’s Michael Van Der Mark and Reparto Corse’s Jules Cluzel did attempt to go quicker than the Kawasaki man, but to no avail, and stay second and third respectively on the timesheets going into the final free practice outing tomorrow morning.
After 30 minutes of the second free practice session no one in the top five bettered their lap time set in the previous session this morning. Even though everyone was trying to better their lap times – it proved a fruitless task, as no other racer was able to go quicker than 1’46.400 that Sofuoglu clocked only hours before.
On the ten minute mark Van Der Mark was able to improve on his lap by one-two hundredths of a second but he remained second on the timing-screens, followed by Reparto Corse’s Jules Cluzel, CIA Insurance Honda’s Jack Kennedy and DMC Panavto-Yamaha’s Kev Coghlan.
Kennedy was on course to potentially better his time but he crashed, but was declared OK at the trackside and re-joined at turn 3, with two minutes left out on track - but could not improve on his 1’47.101.
But even with the tumble the Dubliner managed to hold on to a provisional second row spot with Scottish rider Coghlan completing the top five with a 1’47.232 – his best time from the morning session. CIA Insurance Honda’s Raffaele De Rosa and Kawasaki Intermoto’s Florian Marino rounded off the top ten.
