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Melandri emerges as Aragon front-runner

Friday, 17 June 2011 15:03 GMT
Melandri emerges as Aragon front-runner
Marco Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) was the clear front-runner from the first day of action at the Motorland Aragon circuit, the Italian taking the provisional pole from home favourite Carlos Checa (Althea Racing Ducati).


Once again Melandri was the only rider to set a sub-2 minute time, stopping the clocks at a new circuit record of 1 minute 59.726 seconds.


Checa was three-tenths off Melandri's pace, just a fraction ahead of Noriyuki Haga (PATA Aprilia), who crashed half-way through the session but then came good at the end to take the third slot.


Leon Camier (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) were all on terrific form, the two Brits just within a tenth of Haga.


The other top championship contender Max Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) registered sixth quickest on the timesheets, and he was followed by fellow Italian Michel Fabrizio (Suzuki Alstare) and an increasingly incisive Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK).


The two factory BMW Motorrad Motorsport machines of Troy Corser and Leon Haslam still appear to be in difficulty, setting 12th and 14th quickest times respectively.