Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies kicked off his French WorldSBK round in style after topping both practice sessions on Friday. Davies shot to the top of the standings early on in FP2, improving on his time from FP1 by four tenths of a second to a 1m37.836s to go two tenths faster than anyone else.
MV Agusta’s Leon Camier enjoyed a positive afternoon. The British rider ended the second session second fastest on a 1m38.046s, narrowly edging out Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes. The Yorkshireman suffered two technical issues in FP2 and this severely hindered his set-up time, sending him into tomorrow’s Superpole somewhat on the back foot.
Twitter:
Seems @TheRealTomSykes is suffering with bike issues at the start of #FrenchWorldSBK FP2 https://t.co/yxqe9ybl2X (@WorldSBK)
Sykes’ teammate Jonathan Rea was just under a tenth of a second adrift in fourth ahead of Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes, the Briton’s recovering in the closing stages of FP2 after an early fall.
Honda’s Michael van der Mark lost the entirety of FP1 to an engine fault, but he came out of the blocks swinging in the second session. The Dutch rider managed to secure a place in Superpole two after setting the sixth fastest time of FP2. Teammate Nicky Hayden didn’t fair as well, and the American will have to contest SP1 after finishing the day down in 13th.
Xavi Fores ended Friday a decent seventh ahead of Lorenzo Savadori, Sylvain Guintoli and the last of the secured SP2 runners Jordi Torres. The Spaniard’s Althea teammate will be left scratching his head at the three-tenth gap splitting them in 11th.
French wild card Matthieu Lagrive is very familiar with Magny-Cours, and he used that track knowledge to impressive effect. Lagrive was 15th this morning, improving by over a second to end FP2 12th. He did crash right at the end of the session at Turn 13, but was able to remount and escaped unscathed. Luca Scassa and Davide Giugliano, who’ll undergo further medical checks hurting his shoulder in a crash last time out in Germany, completed the top 15.
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