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The first free practice of the 2013 World Superbike opening round of the season at Phillip Island started ten minutes later than expected, due to the numerous crashes (12) that characterized the Supersport practice, which forced the session to be red flagged five different times.
Michel Fabrizio was the fastest rider during the first practice. The Italian riding is now riding a competitive Aprilia RSV4 Factory and he posted a flying lap of 1’31″218, well under Max Biaggi’s last year’s record and just three tenths off the 2011 Superpole record, and we can expect that Superpole record to be broken this weekend and his race pace was scarily constant.
The Italian was not only the fastest, but he left both Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam and Fixi Suzuki’s Leon Camier, second and third respectively, more than half a second adrift, with nine riders were covered in less than a second.
Aprilia factory rider Sylvain Guintoli was fourth ahead of the two BMW riders, Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri while Tom Sykes still recovering from his pre-season test wrist injury was 7th.
Jonathan Rea was 8th, followed by Carlos Checa who suffered a crash at Siberia. The Alstare rider was okay and returned to his garage on his own two feet, but with his leathers sadly in need of repair and team mate Ayrton Badovini already bruised and battered from last week’s test binned his Panigale again and at Swan Corner that left him down in 18th.
Completing the top ten was Davide Giugliano. Further down the field was Eugene Laverty. wildcard rider Jamie Stauffer, returnee Max Neukirchner who suffered a big crash during the official test.
WSBK Phillip Island FP1 results:
01- Michel Fabrizio – Red Devils Roma – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – 1’31.218
02- Leon Haslam – Pata Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 0.510
03- Leon Camier – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 0.585
04- Sylvain Guintoli – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 0.746
05- Chaz Davies – BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team – BMW S1000RR HP4 – + 0.828
06- Marco Melandri – BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK Team – BMW S1000RR HP4 – + 0.839
07- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 0.895
08- Jonathan Rea – Pata Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 0.940
09- Carlos Checa – Team Ducati Alstare – Ducati 1199 Panigale R – + 0.953
10- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 1.097