Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea topped a red-flagged second practice from Laguan Seca ahead of the US round of the World Superbike Championship, though it was Chaz Davies on the Ducati who was fastest on the combined times.
Second fastest man from this morning, Eugene Laverty, led the way in the early stages of second practice before the first of two red flags stopped play after a crash at the Corkscrew for Honda’s Stefan Bradl.
Uninjured, the German was able to rejoin the action but was unable to improve on his 1m24.928s from this morning, ending the day down in 13th and facing the first part of Superpole on Saturday.
Improvements on the combined standings were few and far between, with championship leader Rea hopping up to second with a 1m24.001s.
This put the championship leader top of the session, though he was soon knocked back by Marco Melandri on the Ducati, the Italian going three tenths of a second clear with a 1m23.778s.
The session was halted once again with just over three minutes left on the clock, this time for a fall for WorldSBK debutant Jake Gagne at the same place as his Honda team-mate Bradl.
A final burst of flying laps after the session was restarted ended with Rea returning to the top of the pile with a 1m23.436s, missing out on Davies’ time from this morning by just 0.011 seconds.
Melandri ends Friday third overall, 0.353s adrift of his team-mate, while Laverty completed the top four despite throwing his Milwaukee Aprilia at the scenery of Turn 3 just before the second red flag.
Tom Sykes improved to fifth in the dying seconds with a 1m24.242s, the Kawasaki rider just over a tenth clear of Xavi Fores. Yamaha’s Alex Lowes was another faller at Turn 3 in the closing stages, the Briton ending Friday eighth overall behind countryman Leon Camier.
Jordi Torres slid off his Althea BMW at Turn 4 on his final flying lap, but held onto a spot in SP2 in ninth ahead of Alex De Angelis – the Pedercini Kawasaki rider securing his first SP2 place this season.
Leandro Mercado clung onto a place inside the top 10 for much of the day, but was denied by just a few hundredths of a second in 11th ahead of Raffaele De Rosa, who will be ruing his tumble at Turn 8 in 12th.
Michael van der Mark has found the going tough on the second Pata YZF-R1 today, the Dutchman slotting into 13th at the chequered flag and 1.3 seconds off the pace. Bradl and Roman Ramos complete the top 15 ahead of a similarly struggling Lorenzo Savadori and late faller Gagne.
