Rea leads soaking wet session

Full WorldSBK FP1 results from Donington Park

Jonathan Rea tops the opening practice session for Kawasaki at Donington Park in rainy and murky conditions.

Despite the glorious sunshine which greeted the British circuit yesterday, rain has soaked Donington Park leading the majority of the World Superbike grid into a tentative start to the race weekend.

Rea, who needs just one more race win to take the all-time victory record in the series, pinched top spot in the first session from Tom Sykes on his penultimate lap before going faster again on his final lap to pull out half a second on his Kawasaki teammate.

Althea BMW’s Loris Baz claimed third on the times ahead of Red Bull Honda’s Leon Camier who starts his return from three broken ribs at his home round with Orelac Racing Kawasaki’s Leandro Mercado rounding out the top five.

Pata Yamaha wildcard Niccolo Canepa opted to maximise his track time despite the conditions to jump up to sixth having completed 13 laps, with Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Marco Melandri in seventh, and Alex Lowes in eighth with just four laps to his name in FP1.

PJ Jacobsen (TripleM Honda) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing Ducati Junior Team) rounded out the top 10.

Michael van der Mark, Ondrej Jezek and wildcard Bradley Ray all opted not to head out in the wet conditions in FP1.