World champion Jonathan Rea dominated the opening practice session for the final round of the 2017 World Superbike season in Qatar, with Kawasaki team-mate Tom Sykes second quickest.
Rea – who is yet to win at the Losail Circuit – comes into this weekend’s final round of the 2017 campaign seeking to cap off his historic year with one more record, as he aims to surpass double world champion Colin Edwards’ points tally of 552 from 2002.
The Northern Irishman must take victory in both races to do so, and he hit the ground running by hitting the top of the timesheets straight away with a 1m59.358s before lowering that to a 1m59.002s.
With 10 minutes gone, Rea had dipped underneath the 1m59s bracket with a 1m58.933s to go almost seven tenths clear of second-placed Alex Lowes, who crashed at the first corner just before Rea extended his advantage.
The Kawasaki man remained unchallenged at the top of the timesheets for the next 30 minutes, until stablemate Sykes edged ahead with a 1m58.355s.
Keen to reassert his dominance, Rea blitzed the field with a 1m57.888s in the final five minutes before cementing top spot with a 1m57.666s on his final lap.
Sykes could not better his 1m58.355s and ended the session second ahead of Ducati’s Chaz Davies, with whom he is battling for second in the standings. After the Jerez round, the pair are level on 363 points.
Lowes‘ team were able to repair his damaged Yamaha R1 and get the Briton back out on track in the closing stages. He managed a 1m58.679s to go fourth ahead of team-mate Michael van der Mark, who is fresh from his MotoGP debut in Malaysia last weekend with the Tech3 team.
Eugene Laverty headed Milwaukee Aprilia team-mate Lorenzo Savadori in sixth spot, while Marco Melandri completed the top nine on the second Aruba.it Ducati. Jordi Torres was 10th on his Althea BMW.
Sylvain Guintoli – who took his last WorldSBK podium in Qatar last year – ended the opening session 11th as he prepares for his second outing with the Puccetti Kawasaki team. Leon Camier was 12th on the MV Agusta.
Honda’s Jake Gagne was forced to park up early with a technical issue. He was pushed back to 17th on the timesheets as a result behind team-mate Davide Giugliano.
WorldSBK returnee Roberto Rolfo, who replaces the injured Ayrton Badovini at Grillini, was 19th and last, while Ricardo Russo’s replacement Jeremy Guarnoni’s comeback lasted all of one sighting lap as he encountered an issue with his Pedercini ZX-10RR.
Leandro Mercado will miss this weekend’s Qatar round after the IodaRacing Aprilia team withdrew from the Championship following Jerez.
