WSB Aragon: Rea leads them all on day one

Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) was the leader of a British 1-2-3 in the first day combined practice times in the WSB class at Motorland Aragon in Spain, with Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Chaz Davies (Ducati World Superbike Team) second and third respectively.

Rea has taken part in two very recent tests in Spain before this weekend, in Cartagena and Jerez, and made his track time count with a 1’58.180 lap time in his return to competitive action.

Loris Baz, Sykes’ ever-improving team-mate in the KRT squad, was fourth on day one.

Just behind the top four, Davide Giugliano (Ducati World Superbike) blew his strong chance of going fastest of all when he outbraked himself at the end of the long straight on his final flaying lap and he remained fifth, just over half a second down on Rea.

Neither of the top Aprilia Racing Team runners, Marco Melandri and Sylvain Guintoli, improved on their morning session lap times and they slipped to sixth and seventh respectively.

Eugene Laverty (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) went eighth fastest, Leon Haslam (Pata Honda) was ninth and top Evo rider thus far was Niccolo Canepa (Althea Racing Ducati) in tenth overall placing – one place up on Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki).

Leon Camier, riding in the BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Evo team as a replacement for the injured Sylvain Barrier, placed 14th overall in his return to competitive action.

Claudio Corti (MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich Motorsport) took his official F4 RR to 13th position in its latest technical development step towards its true full Superbike potential, finishing just over 2.5 seconds from Rea.

The 27-rider field was inflated by the first appearance of the two official Alstare Bimota BB3 SBK Evo machines, with riders Ayrton Badovini 17th overall and Christian Iddon 21st fastest. The new rules in WSB allow the Bimota to compete subject to homologation, but until the Italian factory reaches the required homologation numbers of 125 machines, they will not score championship points in races.

1  65  J. REA GBR   PATA Honda World Superbike  Honda CBR1000RR   1’58.180
2  1  T. SYKES GBR   Kawasaki Racing Team   Kawasaki ZX-10R   1’58.417 0.237 0.237
3  7  C. DAVIES GBR   Ducati Superbike Team   Ducati 1199 Panigale R   1’58.575 0.395 0.158
4  76  L. BAZ FRA   Kawasaki Racing Team   Kawasaki ZX-10R   1’58.579 0.399 0.004
5  34  D. GIUGLIANO ITA  Ducati Superbike Team   Ducati 1199 Panigale R   1’58.717 0.537 0.138
6  50  S. GUINTOLI FRA  Aprilia Racing Team   Aprilia RSV4 Factory   1’58.900 0.720 0.183
7  33  M. MELANDRI ITA  Aprilia Racing Team   Aprilia RSV4 Factory   1’58.901 0.721 0.001
8  58  E. LAVERTY IRL   Voltcom Crescent Suzuki  Suzuki GSX-R1000   1’58.971 0.791 0.070
9  91  L. HASLAM GBR   PATA Honda World Superbike  Honda CBR1000RR   1’59.103 0.923 0.132
10  59  N. CANEPA ITA   Althea Racing    Ducati 1199 Panigale R EVO  1’59.861 1.681 0.758
11  22  A. LOWES GBR   Voltcom Crescent Suzuki  Suzuki GSX-R1000   2’00.309 2.129 0.448
12  24  T. ELIAS ESP   Red Devils Roma   Aprilia RSV4 Factory  2’00.480 2.300 0.171
13  71  C. CORTI ITA   MV Agusta RC-Yakhnich M.  MV Agusta F4 RR   2’00.749 2.569 0.269
14  19  L. CAMIER GBR   BMW Motorrad Italia SBK  BMW S1000 RR EVO   2’00.966 2.786 0.217
15  44  D. SALOM ESP   Kawasaki Racing Team   Kawasaki ZX-10R EVO   2’01.032 2.852 0.066
21  2  C. IDDON GBR   Team Alstare    Bimota BB3 EVO    2’02.709 4.529 0.037