Suite à une première journée qui comptait exceptionnellement trois séances d’essais libres, Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) est installé au sommet de la feuille de temps du WorldSBK à Donington Park, où il avait réalisé le doublé ces deux dernières années. Le Britannique a tourné en 1’28.172 et était à un rien du record du circuit, dont il est l’auteur.
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing Ducati SBK Team) est tombé juste après être passé en seconde position, à trois minutes du drapeau à damier, et terminait devant Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), qui était lui aussi parmi les pilotes à améliorer leurs chronos lors de la troisième séance.
Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) ne semblait pas gêné par ses côtes cassées et a fini quatrième devant ses compatriotes Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) et Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki).
Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) a perdu un peu de terrain mais était tout de même septième, devant Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) et Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing).
Le rookie espagnol Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) a manqué le Top 10 de justesse et devra donc participer à la Superpole 1, à l’instar de Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), David Salom (Team Pedercini), Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) et Christophe Ponsson (Team Pedercini), qui complétaient le Top 15.
On a day that saw three 45 minute Free Practice sessions for the WorldSBK riders, the final one deciding the 20 riders that will make it through to tomorrow’s Tissot-Superpole sessions it was FP3 that saw the most activity as well as the fastest time as Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) ended day one on combined times as the fastest rider to lap the 4.023km Donington Park circuit, the top 13 covered by 0.953s
The Kawasaki rider’s time of 1.28.172 was less than a tenth of a second from his own race lap record set in 2013 and kept the former champion 0.111s ahead of the opposition.
Davide Giugliano crashed his Aruba.it Racing Ducati SBK Team entry after moving into 2nd with 3 minutes to go, the Italian was able to stay ahead of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) who finished 3rd after also improving in the final session of the day.
Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) showed no ill effects of the rib injury from Imola, moving closer to the fastest time in 4th ahead of compatriots Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team) and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) who were 5th and 6th.
Ayrton Badovini kept BMW Motorrad Italia in contention in 7th ahead of Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) and Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing).
WorldSBK rookie Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) just missed out on the top ten finishing 11th on his Donington debut, ahead of Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), David Salom (Team Pedercini), Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) and the youngest rider on the grid Christophe Ponsson (Team Pedercini) who were the final riders in the top 15.
The final rider to make it into Tissot-Superpole was Santiago Barragan (Grillini SBK Team) who edged Imre Toth (BMW Team Toth) in the final half of FP3 to secure 20th.
To read about FP2 please click here.
