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Sykes leads the field into Laguna Seca Tissot-Superpole sessions

Saturday, 18 July 2015 17:41 GMT

    • Top 9 riders covered by 0.880s.

    A slightly cooler and overcast start to the day at Laguna Seca for the GEICO Motorcycle U.S. Round of the eni FIM Superbike World Championship provided a perfect opportunity for the WorldSBK riders to improve on their times of 24 hours ago with Kawasaki Racing Team’s Tom Sykes setting the fastest lap of the weekend so far, 1.23.105s to head the field into this afternoon’s Tissot-Superpole.

    The former World Champion looked in the zone from the start as both he and eventual 2nd placed rider Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) improved immediately. The pair pushed each other throughout with Davies closing to within 0.090s as he improved still further with two minutes remaining.

    As expected, the times during this morning’s FP3 were the fastest of the weekend with 6 of the top ten riders improving on yesterday within the first 7 minutes.

    Behind the top two the remaining top ten places were decided in the final moments as positions switched with each lap. Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) eventually elevated himself to 3rd before a technical problem prevented the Italian improving further. Laguna rookie Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) had a sensational session jumping to 4th ahead of team mate Leon Haslam and championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) who completed the top six.

    Niccolo Canepa’s strong weekend on the Althea Racing Ducati continued, the Italian finishing 7th with Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) improving on his final lap to go 8th.

    0.880s behind Sykes was reigning champ Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) with David Salom (Team Pedercini) 10th overall.

    11th to 15th overall were Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing), Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team.

    The riders placed 11th to 20th on combined Free Practice classification will now run for 15 minutes in Superpole 1 at 1525 with the top 2 from that session joining the already seeded top ten competitors in the fight for the Tissot-Superpole victory.

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