News

Torres fastest in WorldSBK for the first time after FP3

Saturday, 20 June 2015 08:51 GMT

    • 13 riders covered by a second.

    Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team) – Red Devils) heads into this afternoon’s Tissot-Superpole as the fastest rider overall after three unpredictable Free Practice sessions with the top13 riders covered by a second, making the PATA Riviera di Rimini round the one of the closest of the year so far.

    Championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) gave it his all to overhaul the WorldSBK rookie, elevating himself to second overall (+0.127) ahead of the also improving Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) who is 3rd (+0.372s).

    Alex Lowes was a late improver on the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki in 5th, just behind yesterday’s fastest man Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing Team) who dropped to 4th and just ahead of Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) who was 6th.

    Michele Pirro was drafted in after Luca Scassa’s unfortunate accident yesterday, the current leader of the CIV, and Ducati’s MotoGP test rider made it through to this afternoon’s Superpole 2 in 7th, despite a small crash early on where he lost the front end of his Aruba.it Racing Ducati.

    Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati SBK Team) finished 8th overall with Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing) and Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda WSBK Team) in 9th and 10th respectively.

    Former champion Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was perhaps the biggest surprise of the day so far, improving his time but dropping to 11th, meaning he will participate in Superpole 1 for the first time in his career.

    Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), Niccolo Canepa (Althea Racing), Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing) and Markus Reiterberger (VanZon Rehema BMW) rounded out the top 15.

    Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) could only manage 17th.

    Leon Camier’s tough weekend continued, the MV Agusta rider had limited track time yesterday due to a technical issue, he crashed at Turn 10 after just 12 minutes of this morning’s session. He should be able to take part in Superpole 1 after being classified 19th overall on combined times.

    The Tissot-Superpole qualifying sessions are scheduled to start at 1500 local time.

    To read what 5 of yesterday’s fastest riders had to say please click here.