Rea back on top in warm-up

Full WorldSBK warm-up results from Phillip Island

Jonathan Rea has returned to the top of the times in Sunday’s warm-up session ahead of Kawasaki team-mate Leon Haslam in the final preparation ahead of World Superbikes’ first-ever sprint race.

Rea’s late 1m 30.153s secured him the fastest lap the session by bettering Haslam’s provisional effort by 0.189s. The warm-up session was the final track time opportunity in the shaken-up World Superbike race weekend format with Sunday hosting the new sprint race (1200 local time) before the traditional race two (1500 local time).

Alex Lowes grabbed third place on the times for Pata Yamaha ahead of race one winner Alvaro Bautista on the Aruba.it Racing Ducati with fellow rookie Sandro Cortese taking fifth place on the GRT Yamaha.

Tom Sykes continued to impress on the new BMW with sixth place in the warm-up session ahead of Marco Melandri who suffered a technical problem with his GRT Yamaha midway through the session.

Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha), Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Kawasaki) rounded out the top 10, while Alessandro Delbianco was a an early faller on the Althea MIE Honda.