MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship standings leader and reigning champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) struggled on Friday as the action commenced at Lausitzring and ended up in 11^th on the timesheets.

It is the first time the Northern Irishman has finished Friday outside of the top ten this season, as he completed FP2 just 0.069s behind Honda World Superbike Team’s Michael van der Mark - who was tenth fastest and therefore rounds off the list of riders to go automatically into Tissot-Superpole 2. Rea will therefore have to try his luck in Superpole 1.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team #1) 11th (1’37.996):

“I wasn’t really expecting that, but it is what it is really. We have really paid the price for not coming here with our race bikes when the other teams were testing here. Between the two sessions we have made big strides but just not enough. Now the gap is half a second and that puts me into Superpole 1 in 11^th position and it is super close. All I can say is that my pace is better than my position would suggest and tomorrow there is rain forecast which is really strange because it is beautiful weather today.”