---
title: "Fores heads opening practice at Jerez"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2016/10/14/fores-heads-opening-practice-jerez/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Lewis Duncan"
section: "SBK"
published: "2016-10-14T09:41:56Z"
modified: "2016-10-14T09:42:24Z"
---

# Fores heads opening practice at Jerez

Barni Racing Ducati’s Xavi Fores topped the time sheets in the opening practice session for the Jerez round of the 2016 WorldSBK season, narrowly pipping Honda’s Nicky Hayden.

Fores will be hoping to carry on his strong form from the last Spanish round at Aragon at the start of the season, where the Spaniard finished fourth in both races. The Barni Racing rider shot to the top of the pile in the final 15 minutes of FP1, lapping the Spanish circuit in 1m42.008s.

Hayden kicked off his penultimate round of his rookie season in fine fashion at a track he knows well. The American stood on the podium twice in his MotoGP days at Jerez and will be out to replicate that this weekend. The Honda rider was just a few hundredths adrift of Fores on a 1m42.073s.

Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies rounded out the top three, the Welshman feeling confident of his chances ahead of practice. Davies is fresh from a superb double at Magny-Cours, and with his championship challenge pretty much over he’s out to end the season in the best possible form.

Spaniard Jordi Torres is also a podium finisher in Grand Prix racing at his home track. The Althea BMW rider finished second in the Moto2 class and would love to make his first visit to the rostrum in 2016 this weekend. Torres was fourth fastest in FP1 ahead of Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes.

The sister Honda of Michael van der Mark was sixth fastest, some four tenths off the pace in FP1. World Champion-Elect Jonathan Rea got proceedings off to a steady start in seventh, whilst compatriot Leon Camier ended the morning eighth despite a late crash at Turn 8. Ant West and Tom Sykes rounded out the top 10.

Markus Reiterberger was dropped out of the top 10 after crashing at Turn 10 with nine minutes left on the clock, ending the session 11th. Alex De Angelis was close behind on the Ioda Aprilia in 12th ahead of Roman Ramos, Davide Giugliano and Sylvain Guintoli.

Karel Abraham was a notable absentee from practice this morning. The Czech rider has elected to sit out today’s running in order to recover from a pretty nasty fever he picked up just before the round.

![2016-10-14-3](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2016/10/2016-10-14-3.png)