2013 WSBK Istanbul: Sylvain Guintoli fastest in FP1

The World Superbike riders rode for the first time the impressive Istanbul Park circuit this morning. Since it was the first time the opening practice as extended to a full 90 minutes, so the riders could have time to learn the circuit, and work on set-up as they obviously don’t have any past data to work from.

With this in mind, the fastest rider of the morning session was Sylvain Guintoli - who has already rode on the Turkish circuit both in the 250cc class and in MotoGP. The Aprilia rider posted the benchmark with 1’56″851 lap, six tenths quicker than Marco Melandri who took his first ever victory in MotoGP at Istanbul Park in 2005.

Following in third was WSBK standings leader Tom Sykes (team mate Loris Baz is not racing after his crash at Nurburgring). Leon Haslam put his Honda into fourth ahead of a suprisingly fast Toni Elias.

Elias is officially debuting in World Superbikes this weekend for the Red Devils squad. The Spaniard headed the top of the timesheets for the first 45 minutes until he dropped to fifth and 1,5 seconds from Guintoli, but ahead of fellow Aprilia rider Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies, Jules Cluzel and closing the top ten was Carlos Checa, who suffered a crash.

Michele Fabrizio who is replacing recovering Jonathan Rea was just 14th and he found himself squeezed between Max Neukirchner and Leon Camier. These two riders crashed out and Camier was taken to the medical center with an injured foot and a suspected fracture. Ayrton Badovini was the third rider to crash out in the session. Turn 1 turned out to be the trickiest corner with several riders running off track.

2013 WSBK Istanbul FP1 results:

1. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′56.851
2. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′57.518
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′57.735
4. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1′58.273
5. Toni Elias (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′58.369
6. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′58.445
7. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′58.802
8. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1′58.805
9. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′58.902
10. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale 1′59.237
11. Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati 1199 Panigale 1′59.675

from TWOWHEELSBLOG