Rea remains top as Sykes struggles in 14th

Full WorldSBK FP3 results from Argentina

Reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea has ended Friday practice on top at the new Argentina round as all riders got up to speed at Circuito San Juan Villicum for the first time.

Having seen off a challenge from Toprak Razgatlioglu in FP2, Rea once again looked the class of the field having sealed a fourth consecutive World Superbike title at the last round at Magny-Cours.

Rea was the sole rider to dip into the 1m 39s bracket to lead the combined times by almost a quarter of a second from Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Marco Melandri with the pair trading fastest lap times throughout FP3.

Razgatlioglu kept his impressive charge up by ending the third practice session third fastest for Puccetti Kawasaki ahead of FP1’s fastest rider Alex Lowes in fourth for Pata Yamaha.

Lorenzo Savadori also continued to show signs of strong pace for Milwaukee Aprilia in fifth place with Red Bull Honda’s Leon Camier recovering strongly to climb to sixth place having struggled for pace in the opening two sessions.

Sykes was another unable to find outright pace but ended FP3 down in 14^th place for the factory Kawasaki squad – 1.2s off team-mate Rea.

Factory Ducati’s Chaz Davies secured his top ten spot, automatically progressing into Superpole 2, with seventh place having surged up late on.

Local star Leandro Mercado also impressed for Orelac Racing Kawasaki by progressing into the top ten in eighth ahead of Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) as Xavi Fores rounded out the top ten on the Barni Ducati.

Michael van der Mark narrowly missed out on the top ten for Pata Yamaha, losing out to Fores by 0.043s, but ahead of Red Bull Honda’s Jake Gagne and Althea BMW’s Loris Baz with Sykes in 14^th.