Davies, Rea share top spot with equal times

Full WorldSBK FP3 results from Imola

Chaz Davies and Jonathan Rea have produced identical best lap times of 1m 46.686s to see the pair share top spot at the end of Friday practice at Imola.

Davies, who has won the past four races at the Italian circuit, notched up his best time with his final lap of the day at the end of FP3 to match Rea’s benchmark set earlier in the final session.

It sees the Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider and Kawasaki rider share the top of the overall times with a sizeable half-second advantage over nearest rival Marco Melandri on the factory Ducati.

Local rider Lorenzo Savadori followed his fellow countryman Melandri up the timesheet during the afternoon sessions to end the day fourth fastest for Milwaukee Aprilia as Pata Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark rounded out the top five having edged out Tom Sykes by just 0.007s.

Sykes, who broke his winless run last time out at Assen, dropped down the combined timesheet after failing to improve on his personal best in FP3 for Kawasaki.

Xavi Fores continues to lead the independent challengers with seventh place for Barni Ducati narrowly in front of Puccetti Kawasaki wildcard Leon Haslam.

Jordi Torres (MV Agusta) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) rounded out the top ten at the end of FP3 to secure the final spots which automatically progress into Superpole 2. It left Eugene Laverty, coming back from his pelvis injury, to narrowly miss out in 11^th for Milwaukee Aprilia but ended the day ahead of Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes.

With Leon Camier confirming his withdrawal from the Imola race weekend as he looks to fully recover from three broken ribs sustained at Aragon last month, Jason O’Halloran had just FP3 to get up to speed for Red Bull Honda at the Italian circuit and duly ended the day in 21^st.