Aragon WSB: Kawasaki pairing dispute top spot after day one

Kawasaki Racing Team riders Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes swapped the lead between them in the second WSB free practice session at Motorland Aragon but at the end Rea was marginally the faster, by only 0.145 seconds. His quickest lap time was a 1’51.234, the best so far at the new-for-WSB Motorland layout.

On a circuit Kawasaki took a double 1-2 at last year, thanks to Sykes and Loris Baz and a different Ninja ZX-10R than the 2015 technical rules now allow, the new season Kawasaki duo displaced Chaz Davies to third place on his official Aruba.it Racing Ducati WSB Panigale. Davies’ team-mate for the Motorland round, Xavi Fores, went fourth in the combined time-sheets.

Morning session struggler Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team Red Devils) moved up to fifth place after two sessions, with Alex Lowes still in the leading hunt in sixth place on his Voltcom Crescent Suzuki.

Fastest Pata Honda rider on day one, which was conducted in dry conditions throughout, was super-rookie Michael van der Mark. Another fast first-season WSB competitor Nico Terol (Althea Racing Ducati) placed eighth.

Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), who replaced Sylvain Barrier in the team shortly before the start of the Motorland round, was 12th and the best BMW rider despite a big crash in the morning. Best Team Hero EBR rider was Niccolo Canepa, 16th after the combined first day sessions.

Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) placed 19th from the 24 riders who made up the afternoon session.

One more ‘free’ session and then Superpole for the top 20 qualifiers remain to be run before raceday.