Davies leads Rea, Bautista in Qatar

Full Qatar WorldSBK FP2 results

Chaz Davies has ended second practice at the Qatar World Superbike round on top with a late improvement of 1m 57.449s to pull clear of reigning champion Jonathan Rea.

Davies leads Rea, Bautista in Qatar

Full Qatar WorldSBK FP2 results

Chaz Davies has ended second practice at the Qatar World Superbike round on top with a late improvement of 1m 57.449s to pull clear of reigning champion Jonathan Rea.

After Alvaro Bautista bolted to the top of the times in FP2 early having found instant improvements in the cooler conditions, the late time attacks saw Davies surge to the top by over a quarter of a second from Rea with the Spanish rider shuffled back to third place.

But Bautista was able to increase his top speed with the Aruba.it Racing Ducati to blast through the speed trap seven km/h faster than nearest rival and team-mate Davies.

FP1 front-runner Toprak Razgatlioglu was pushed back to fourth place for Puccetti Kawasaki, with the Turkish rider conceding chunks of time in the final sector, but he kept ahead of lead Pata Yamaha and future team-mate Michael van der Mark in fifth place.

Tom Sykes surged up to sixth place for BMW to nip ahead of Alex Lowes on his final outing for Pata Yamaha before heading to Kawasaki for 2020.

Markus Reiterberger found similar gains to Sykes with his BMW to take eighth place in front of GRT Yamaha’s Sandro Cortese.

Despite failing to improve on his best lap from FP1, Loris Baz held on to a top 10 spot for Ten Kate Racing Yamaha by keeping clear of Eugene Laverty on the Team Goeleven Ducati.

With Leon Haslam in 12th place for Kawasaki, Michael Ruben Rinaldi became restrained in 13th place for Barni Ducati but in front of the retiring Marco Melandri on the GRT Yamaha and Orelac Racing Kawasaki’s Leandro Mercado.

That left Jordi Torres down in 16th place for Pedercini Kawasaki, as Leon Camier led the Moriwaki Althea Honda charge ahead of fellow Honda riders Alessandro Delbianco and Ryuichi Kiyonari.

Wildcard Dominic Schmitter completed the times on his Yamaha but over four seconds off the pace.

Read More