Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes fended off the charges of Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier to top the opening World Superbike free practice session at Silverstone this morning.
With one second remaining Camier stormed to the top of the timesheets with a 2’06.413, and looked like he would be the fastest rider out on track, but when the chequered flag appeared Sykes went four tenths of a second quicker on his thirteenth and final lap, which knocked the tall Kent lad off the top spot with his dominating 2’06.413 time.
Red Devils Roma rider Michel Fabrizio did reach the dizzy heights of the top of the timesheets not once, but twice in the session. He continued to improve, and with thirty seven minutes remaining he was the fastest rider on track with a 2’08.143, which cemented his position at the top of the timing screens.
He lapped even quicker and with seconds left to go he crossed the line with a 2’06.964 but it was not enough for him to out pace Sykes and Camier and he had to settle for third fastest, followed by Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano, and GoldBet BMW’s Marco Melandri who rounded off the top five, with his 2’07.005.
Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea did reach third fastest overall with fourteen minutes remaining, but his quickest time of 2'07.035 was not enough to place him inside the top three quickest times and ended the session three hundredths of a second behind Melandri.
It was a battle between Aprilia team-mates Eugene Laverty and Sylvain Guintoli as to who could be the quickest out on the historic circuit, as both lapped consistently fast times, but it was Irishman Laverty who edged out the England based Frenchman when the 45 minutes were up, with Laverty clocking a time that was only two tenths of a second faster. Ducati Alstare’s Ayrton Badovini rounded off the top ten.
Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam ended the free practice session in eleventh with GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies finishing fourteenth fastest with a 2’08.450 and nearly two seconds slower than the fastest lap set by Sykes.
