van der Mark edges Haslam in wet FP1 as Rea, Bautista fall
Full WorldSBK FP1 results at Magny-Cours
Michael van der Mark has used his last lap to make the most of the best conditions to top FP1 at Magny-Cours for Pata Yamaha in a wet but drying session, as both World Superbike title rivals Jonathan Rea and Alvaro Bautista tipped off early on.
Full WorldSBK FP1 results at Magny-Cours
Michael van der Mark has used his last lap to make the most of the best conditions to top FP1 at Magny-Cours for Pata Yamaha in a wet but drying session, as both World Superbike title rivals Jonathan Rea and Alvaro Bautista tipped off early on.
After heavy rain soaked the Magny-Cours circuit this morning, the World Superbike grid made a tentative start to action in FP1 in very low grip conditions which caught out Bautista as he fell at Turn 2 on his first timed lap.
Moments later Rea suffered a similar fate to his title rival, this time going down at Turn 13, which cut short his FP1 session to just five laps.
With the rain relenting as the session progressed, conditions duly improved late on with van der Mark using his final lap to set a 1m 51.852s to top the session by 0.223s from Haslam on the factory Kawasaki.
Marco Melandri slotted into third place on the GRT Yamaha ahead of Leandro Mercado on the Orelac Kawasaki as Loris Baz completed the top five having led the majority of the session for Ten Kate Racing Yamaha.
Alessandro Delbianco, who impressed in the wet at Donington Park, surged up to sixth place for Althea BMW ahead of Rea and Alex Lowes on the Pata Yamaha.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) and Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven Ducati) rounded out the top 10 in front of the returning Leon Camier for Moriwaki Althea Honda who is taking part in his first World Superbike action for over four months having been out with a shoulder injury sustained in a fall at Imola back in May.
Toprak Razgatlioglu slotted into 12th place for Puccetti Kawasaki ahead of Bautista who was limited to 13th place for Aruba.it Racing Ducati.
The Spanish rider did keep ahead of team-mate Chaz Davies who completed just eight laps in FP1, with Ryuichi Kiyonari in 15th place for Moriwaki Althea Honda.
Jordi Torres (Pedercini Kawasaki), wildcard Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Ducati), Tom Sykes (BMW), Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) and Markus Reiterberger (BMW) completing the times in a low-key morning session.
