World Superbike

The opening day’s Free Practice sessions for the Fassi French Round drew to a close with new WorldSBK Champion Jonathan Rea leading the way aboard his Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-10R. The 28-year-old Ulsterman was able to break the 1’38s barrier on his penultimate lap of the FP2 session as he lapped the 4.411km Magny-Cours track in 1’37.750, to edge his teammate Tom Sykes and factory Ducati rider Chaz Davies by nearly three tenths of a second.

Fourth and fifth placed Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) showed great speed aboard their respective bikes, likewise Niccolò Canepa (Althea Racing Ducati) who was sixth at the flag, despite an early crash during the session.

Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) continued his familiarisation with the French track by finishing seventh ahead of the Italian trio of Matteo Baiocco (Althea Racing Ducati), Luca Scassa (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team) and Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia), who rounded out the top 10.

Outgoing WorldSBK Champion Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike) was headed by Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Ducati) for eleventh, while one wildcard rider Markus Reiterberger (VanZon Remeha BMW) claimed a provisional thirteenth place ahead of tomorrow morning’s FP3, which will decide the riders taking part in the twelfth round’s Tissot-Superpole.

 

World Supersport

World Supersport leader Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) topped the opening day’s on track activity at Magny-Cours, leading the way thanks to the 1.41.660s he set in the morning session.

Behind the Turk, who could wrap up his fourth WSS title on Sunday, was a confident and fast Lucas Mahias, who closed to within 0.091s aboard his MG Competition Yamaha.

Third overall on the combined times was PJ Jacobsen (CORE’’ Motorsport Thailand), the American suffering a front end crash at Adelaide with 17 minutes of the session remaining. Great work by the team ensured he made it back on track, losing very little time.

Positions fourth to sixth were taken by Kyle Smith (Pata Honda World Supersport Team), Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) and recently married Alex Baldolini (Race Department ATK#25).

Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing) was seventh ahead of Nico Terol (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) who continues his WSS adaption, the Spanish rider ending the day eighth ahead of Roberto Rolfo (Team Lorini) and Kevin Wahr, who recovered from an early FP1 technical problem to round out the top ten.

Gino Rea (CIA Landlords Insurance Honda) suffered a huge crash in FP1 when running 3rd. The Englishman was sat in leathers in his garage throughout FP2 as his team raced against the clock to repair his machine. Running out of time he will have to wait until FP3 to show his true potential. He ended the day eleventh overall courtesy of his morning time.

There were some eye catching performances from a number of ‘wildcard’ and ‘one event’ riders, WSS debutants Xavi Pinsach (Team Lorini) and Estonian Hannes Soomer who is riding for Kallio Racing) finished day one in 17th and 20th respectively.

Source: WorldSBK