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Sykes fastest in FP1 at Jerez

Friday, 18 September 2015 10:11 GMT

    • Holidays over, racing resumes with 0.099s covering the top 3.

    With the summer break over normal WorldSBK service resumed with Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) topping the times at Jerez in FP1 as the Pirelli Spanish round began thanks to his 1.41.957s lap time set midway through the 45 minute session.

    In dry and sunny conditions the opening session of the weekend saw championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) set the initial benchmark before being overhauled by team mate Tom Sykes and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) who powered to the head of the time sheet in the early stages. The top 3 riders in the overall championship standings leading the way.

    With half of the session gone, Sykes was back in the number one spot, a mere 0.007s ahead of Davies.

    As is usually the case, the final few minutes saw a flurry of personal improving laps, with Sykes ending the 45 minutes at the head of the field, with Rea and Davies completing the top 3. The trio covered by less than one tenth of a second.

    Niccolo Canepa (Althea Racing)  and Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) were 4th and 5th respectively ahead of the second Aprilia of Leon Haslam who completed the top 6. Torres fell in the closing minutes of the session at Turn 1, the Spaniard unhurt rejoined and returned to pits.

    Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing) finished 7th after an encouraging start to his weekend, with Michele Pirro, on the second Aruba.it Racing Ducati entry 8th. The Italian looking lively, especially out of the final corner where he had his Panigale making all kinds of shapes.

    The Pata Honda pairing of Sylvain Guintoli and Michael van der Mark completed the top 10.

    Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) eventually ended the session 11th after spending much of the first 15 minutes in the pits, the British rider returning immediately to pit lane after an exploratory out lap before steadily improving with each lap he posted.

    Positions 12th to 15th were claimed by Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), Roman Ramos (Team Go Eleven), David Salom (Team Pedercini) and Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki).

    FP2 will take place this afternoon at 1500 local time, the session will run for 45 minutes.

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