Tom Sykes remained on top of the timesheets at the Lausitzring despite a session-ending crash during second practice for the German World Superbike round.
The session was brought to a halt with 35 minutes on the clock after fluid was deposited on circuit at Turn 12, which caught Stefan Bradl out and left bits of his Honda strewn across track.
Alex Lowes’ Yamaha gave up the ghost in a spectacular plume of smoke just seconds before, his R1 leaking fluid. Mercifully, Bradl walked away unscathed but the afternoon session was over for the German.
A heavy rain shower during the stoppage period led to an even longer delay, with the session finally getting back underway close to 90 minutes after the original red flag.
Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes was top of the pile before the session was halted, the Yorkshireman one of only two riders in the top 10 to improve on their first practice time with a 1m37.172s.
Sykes crashed soon after posting that lap at Turn 4. With his bike suffering significant damage as it rolled end over end in the gravel the Kawasaki rider was absent from the remainder of the session.
Championship leader Jonathan Rea remained second on the combined times with his 1m37.504s from this morning, while Chaz Davies completed the top three.
Lorenzo Savadori held onto fourth spot on his Milwaukee Aprilia. Marco Melandri looked to struggle in the opening session, but jumped up to fifth on the combined times early in second practice with a 1m37.858s.
The Ducati rider’s improvement forced Michael van der Mark out of the top 10, while Yamaha team-mate – with whom he won the Suzuka 8 hours during the summer break – held onto an SP2 spot despite his early mechanical drama.
The length delay to proceedings allowed Yamaha to fix his bike and get him out for some wet weather running in closing half of the session.
Eugene Laverty, Markus Reiterberger, Leon Camier and Jordi Torres slotted in between Melandri and Lowes to complete the group heading straight through to SP2 on Saturday morning.
Raffele De Rosa was the only other rider to improve on his morning time, though the Althea BMW failed to lift himself any higher than 15th with his 1m39.387s.
