Aruba.it Ducati’s Chaz Davies was in commanding form in this afternoon’s second free practice session ahead of the fifth round of the 2017 season from Imola, the Welshman half a second clear of the field.
Davies began the day strong, ending the morning session just over two tenths down on Jonathan Rea in second spot, and was quick early on in FP2. Setting a string of fastest laps, Davies settled on a 1m46.229s in the closing stages to put his Panigale 0.465s out of reach.
FP1 fastest man Rea spent the opening half of the hour-long session focusing on his race set-up, so will not be too concerned by his gap to Davies heading into tomorrow’s running. Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes completed the top three once again, some nine tenths off the pace.
Marco Melandri will be left puzzled at the near one-second gap splitting him from team-mate Davies in fourth, whilst Barni Racing’s Xavi Fores will be satisfied with fifth after crashing again at Turn 2 in the opening minutes of FP1.
The session was briefly stopped just seconds after Fores’ accident after Eugene Laverty littered the track at Turn 14 with gravel and dirt when he dropped his Milwaukee Aprilia. The Northern Irishman was able to return to his garage for repairs and went on to complete the top 10, securing a direct place in Superpole two.
Alex Lowes endured a tough morning on his Pata Yamaha, the Briton ending FP1 down in 11th. But the afternoon proved more fruitful for Lowes as he jumped up the order to sixth ahead of compatriot Leon Camier. Lowes’ team-mate Michael van der Mark was eighth fastest, with Leandro Mercado impressing on the Ioda Aprilia in ninth.
Jordi Torres narrowly missed out on a place in SP2 in 11th, whilst both Honda’s for the second race in a row must also contest the first part of qualifying tomorrow morning. Roman Ramos and Randy Krummenacher rounded out the top 15.
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