Silverstone WSS: Lowes raises the bar in Saturday’s free practice

Sam Lowes asserted his dominance Saturday morning in the second free practice session in this weekend’s World Supersport races from Silverstone.
 
Lowes put in a 2.09.019 on his Parkalgar Honda, more than 0.8 seconds clear of anyone else in the field, and did so on the medium compound Pirelli tyre.
 
Lowes finished provisional qualifying second on Friday, but made big changes in an attempt to get more rear grip on corner exit.
 
Lowes said: “We’ve tried a lot of stuff on the bike overnight, even though yesterday we made some big changes, and it’s definitely a lot better.”
 
Step Racing Honda’s Gino Rea finished second of the Brits and fifth overall with a 2.10.211, which was 0.9 seconds slower than he went in Friday’s first qualifying session.
 
Chaz Davies finished as third quickest Brit and seventh overall on his ParkinGO Yamaha with a 2.10.316, 1.2 seconds behind Lowes. The ParkinGO team have had to make some changed on Davies’ R6, but the Welshman said he’s not working on any particular area of setup.
 
Davies said: “We changed what we expected we’d have to change, but we need to go a bit further in that direction. It’s not one particular thing anymore, just need to piece a few things together and sort a couple of these corners out myself.”
 
Fourth of the Brits and 12th overall was Bogdanka PTR Honda’s James Ellison. After highsiding following a collision with teammate Pawel Szkopek on the first lap of the session, Ellison spent a large chunk of time in the garage while his bike was rebuilt.
 
Despite the setback, Ellison was positive and looks forwards to the afternoon’s final qualifying session with a full allocation of tyres.
 
Ellison said: “There’s some tyres that work really well and there’s some that aren’t that good. We only get a certain allocation so we had to use the ones we didn’t really like in that session and save all the good stuff.”
 
Results of Silverstone World Supersport Free Practice 2
 
1. Sam Lowes (Parkalgar Honda) Honda CBR600RR 2’09.019
2. Florian Marino (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) Honda CBR600RR 2’09.859
3. Fabien Foret (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) Honda CBR600RR 2’09.962
4. Broc Parkes (Kawasaki Motocard.com) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’10.080
5. Gino Rea (Step Racing Team) Honda CBR600RR 2’10.211
6. David Salom (Kawasaki Motocard.com) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’10.251
7. Chaz Davies (Yamaha ParkinGO Team) Yamaha YZF R6 2’10.316
8. Roberto Tamburini (Bike Service R.T.) Yamaha YZF R6 2’10.348
9. Robbin Harms (Harms Benjan Racing Team) Honda CBR600RR 2’10.583
10. Luca Scassa (Yamaha ParkinGO Team) Yamaha YZF R6 2’10.817
11. Massimo Roccoli (Lorenzini by Leoni) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’11.092
12. James Ellison (Bogdanka PTR Honda) Honda CBR600RR 2’11.109
13. Balazs Nemeth (Team Hungary Toth) Honda CBR600RR 2’11.232
14. Imre Toth (Team Hungary Toth) Honda CBR600RR 2’11.451
15. Miguel Praia (Parkalgar Honda) Honda CBR600RR 2’11.537
16. Alexander Lundh (Cresto Guide Racing Team) Honda CBR600RR 2’11.628
17. Luca Marconi (Bike Service R.T.) Yamaha YZF R6 2’11.867
18. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Lorenzini by Leoni) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’11.912
19. Danilo Dell’Omo (Suriano Racing Team) Triumph Daytona 675 2’11.920
20. Ondrej Jezek (SMS Racing) Honda CBR600RR 2’12.210
21. Vladimir Ivanov (Step Racing Team) Honda CBR600RR 2’12.638
22. Pawel Szkopek (Bogdanka PTR Honda) Honda CBR600RR 2’12.783
23. Bastien Chesaux (MACH Racing) Honda CBR600RR 2’12.855
24. Ronan Quarmby (Suriano Racing Team) Triumph Daytona 675 2’12.912
25. Luke Stapleford (Profile Road and Racing Perfor) Kawasaki ZX-6R 2’13.218
26. Mitchell Pirotta (KUJA Racing) Honda CBR600RR 2’14.595
27. Christan Cassella (AARK Racing) Triumph Daytona 675 2’15.144
28. Marko Jerman (MD Team Jerman) Triumph Daytona 675 2’16.457
29. Yves Polzer (Team MRC Austria) Yamaha YZF R6 2’17.384
30. Eduard Blokhin (RivaMoto) Yamaha YZF R6 2’18.377
31. Oleg Pozdneev (RivaMoto) Yamaha YZF R6 2’18.464