Sykes closes in on Rea in FP2

Click here for full WorldSBK FP2 results from Assen

Tom Sykes has slashed at the deficit to Kawasaki teammate Jonathan Rea during the second free practice at Assen to jump up to second.

Haydn Cobb_1

20 Apr 2018

Click here for full WorldSBK FP2 results from Assen

Tom Sykes has slashed at the deficit to Kawasaki teammate Jonathan Rea during the second free practice at Assen to jump up to second.

With FP2 held 24 hours before the opening Assen race, the bulk of the focus for World Superbike riders was on race set-up, but Sykes was still able to notch up a 1m 35.708s to move to within one-tenth of timesheet-topper Rea.

Michael van der Mark’s best effort from FP1 saw him shuffled down to third place on the combined times for Pata Yamaha while all of the front-runners marginally improved. Melandri was the biggest improver in FP2 to jump to fourth place for Aruba.it Racing Ducati with Jordi Torres rounding out the top five on the MV Agusta.

Lorenzo Savadori bounced back from his first practice session fall to take sixth place on the combined times for Milwaukee Aprilia ahead of Barni Ducati’s Xavi Fores and Althea BMW’s Loris Baz.

Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes and factory Ducati’s Chaz Davies provisionally hold the final top spots for the automatic switch into Superpole 2.

Sole Red Bull Honda rider Jake Gagne suffered a huge crash midway through FP2 when he went wide and dropped his rear wheel on to the grass which sent him into a dramatic high-side crash. After being checked over at the medical centre the American rider was declared fit to continue despite a couple of heavy blows on his hip.

Gagne is riding without teammate Leon Camier this weekend at Assen as the British rider continues to recover from his nasty accident at Aragon last time out in which he suffered three broken ribs and a chest injury.