Jonathan Rea continued to set the pace at Magny-Cours after topping the second World Superbike practice session from Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark.
Championship leader Rea – who can wrap up the 2017 WorldSBK title this weekend – ended the first session of the weekend fastest of all with a 1m37.849s, a time which stood for much of the afternoon’s hour of running.
As most focused on race set-up, improvements were few and far between, with the most significant movers in the early stages being Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty improving to fourth and Tom Sykes going third on the combined times.
Sykes’ 1m38.217s was good enough for top spot in the session, though the injured Kawasaki rider slid back to 10th by the chequered flag.
Rea‘s position at the top of the combined standings remained unchallenged as the session reached its conclusion, with the KRT rider cementing his place at the top of the timesheets with a 1m37.489s at the end.
Yamaha’s van der Mark made a late charge up to second with a 1m37.928s ahead of the Ducati duo of Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies.
Lorenzo Savadori capped off a strong day for the Milwaukee Aprilia team in fifth on the combined standings, with Barni Racing’s Xavi Fores not far adrift in sixth.
MV Agusta’s Leon Camier endured a fragmented session and was unable to improve on his 1m38.032s from the opening session.
However, this lap was still good enough to see the British rider directly into the second part of Superpole alongside compatriots Alex Lowes and Laverty.
Leandro Mercado missed out on the top 10 by four tenths of a second in 11th, while both Althea BMW riders Jordi Torres and Raffaele De Rosa also missed the SP2 cut in 12th and 13th.
Honda’s Davide Giugliano completed the top 15, though his session was not without incident after the Italian fell from his Fireblade at the tight Adelaide hairpin with 40 minutes in.
Team-mate Jake Gagne continued his education of Magny-Cours, improving on his morning best by around six tenths of a second to a 1m40.783s to end the day 21st overall. French wildcard Matthieu Lussiana completed the 22-rider field on Friday.
