Donington WSBK: Sykes leads second qualifying

Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes topped the World Superbike second qualifying practice session at Donington Park, with a lap time of 1:28.8, one second quicker than the rest of the pack.

The Huddersfield rider clocked his fastest lap time with eleven minutes left of the session remaining, and even with late charges from Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli and Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camier it was not enough to topple Sykes from the top of the timesheets this morning.

Guintoli was the fastest rider around the track, fifteen minutes into the session, but Sykes proved unstoppable out on the Leicestershire circuit, and the Frenchman had to contend with second as the chequered flag came down, and could not improve on his 1’29.026 lap.

Camier pushed his way from sixth fastest, to third, with five minutes to go and rode a time of 1’29.090 overtaking GoldBet BMW rider, Marco Melandri who was demoted to fourth.

Kawasaki’s Loris Baz did reach the dizzy heights of second fastest, but could emulate the time set by his team-mate, Sykes and rounded off the top five with a respectable time of 1’29.17. Not far off the pace of the Frenchman was GoldBet BMW’s Chaz Davies. Throughout the 45 minute qualifying practice session he was setting consistent lap times, but could not break into the top five, and finished sixth  quickest with a 1’29.256 lap.

Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea best lap time of 1’29.446 placed him seventh fastest, but during the dying minutes of the session he was pushed down to eighth, after Althea Racing’s Davide Giugliano rode a time of 1’29.274.

Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty was one of the first riders out on the Donington track, and on his first lap topped the timesheets, but he found himself slip to ninth with his time of 1’29.587, just in front of Red Devils Roma rider Michel Fabrizio.

Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam was only declared fit to race yesterday after breaking his leg at Assen back in April. He did manage to get inside the top ten but was unable to progress on his 1’30.413 lap time and finished the session in fifteenth.

Euro Sport