Silverstone WSB: Rea tops opening Supersport qualifying practice

Gino Rea finished on top of Friday afternoon’s World Supersport qualifying session with a 2.09.362 on his Step Racing Honda, 0.228 seconds ahead of Parkalgar Honda’s Sam Lowes.

Rea, who was fourth quickest in the morning session, improved his time by 1.9 seconds from his morning time. Lowes, meanwhile, finished the morning in third and was able to improve by just over a second in the afternoon.

ParkinGO Yamaha’s Luca Scassa and Hannspree Ten Kate Honda’s Fabien Foret were the only other riders to get within one second of Rea’s time in the weekend’s first qualifying session, finishing third and fourth with a 2.09.804 and 2.10.004 respectively.

James Ellison finished the session as the third fastest Brit, finishing seventh overall on his Bogdanka PTR Honda on a 2.10.591, 1.1 seconds quicker than his times from this morning’s opening practice session, but still more than 1.5 seconds behind Rea.

World championship leader Chas Davies rounded out the session in 10th, forcing his ParkinGO Yamaha R6 around the 3.6 mile Silverstone circuit in 2.11.217, more than a second quicker than he went in the morning.

World Supersport Qualifying Session 1 results:

1. Gino Rea   Step Racing Honda   2.09.362
2. Sam Lowes   Parkalgar Honda   2.09.590
3. Luca Scassa   ParkinGO Yamaha   2.09.804
4. Fabien Foret  Hannspree Ten Kate Honda  2.10.004
5. Robert Harms  Harms Benjan Racing Honda  2.10.414
6. Roberto Tamburini  Bike Service RT Yamaha  2.10.789
7. James Ellison  Bogdanka PTR Honda  2.10.951
8. David Salom  Kawasaki Motocard.com  2.10.972
9. Florian Marino  Hannspree Ten Kate Honda  2.11.181
10. Chaz Davies  ParkinGO Yamaha   2.11.217