Under clear blue skies at the season-opening Yamaha Finance Australian Round the first Superpole 2 of 2017 concluded with defending World Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) on pole courtesy of a stunning 1’29.573 best lap – a new lap record at Phillip Island.

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) also feature on the front row having registered best laps respectively +0.032s and +0.161s off pole man Rea’s record pole time.

The second row will comprise Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati), Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia), with all of the top five under last year’s pole record of 1’30.020 set by Sykes.

Davies had a big scare midway through the 15-minute shootout as he had a huge wobble and ran offline at turn 1.

Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team), Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) are on the third row.

Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team), Nicky Hayden (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) and Markus Reiterberger (Althea BMW Racing Team) will line up on the fourth row.

Camier and Van der Mark were the two riders to have made it through from Tissot Superpole 1.

The likes of Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia), Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) were unable to graduate it through from Tissot Superpole 1 and will therefore line up on the fifth row in 13^th, 14^th and 15^th respectively.

Laverty had provisionally been in a position to make it through to Tissot Superpole 2 but a crash after just one flying lap saw him fall out of contention.

The first race of the 2017 WorldSBK Championship is set to commence at 3PM local time at Phillip Island on Saturday, with Race 2 at 3PM on Sunday.

As the first day of action of the 2017 WorldSBK Championship commenced at Phillip Island on Friday it was Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) who topped the timesheets in FP1 with a best time of 1’30.189.

Davies took over at the top towards the end of free practice from World Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), who finished second by a +0.066 margin having led much of the session.

Spanish BARNI Racing Team rider Xavi Fores was third on his Ducati, just under three tenths off Davies’ P1 time.

Rea’s colleague Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) was fourth, with the top five completed by the returning Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).

Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team), Nicky Hayden (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team), Markus Reiterberger (Althea BMW Racing Team), Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) completed the top ten.

In the first ten minutes of the session an engine fault for Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) saw him pull off track, with a red flag briefly coming out as a precaution due to a an oil leak from Camier’s machine, though the action soon got back underway. Camier concluded FP1 in 11^th place.

Newcomer Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) ran off track at turn 4 at one stage in his first official WorldSBK session and the German ended up 15th on the timesheet.

Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) spectacularly saved a huge wobble at turn 11 late in the session and finished 13th.

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was Friday’s fastest participant at the season-opening Yamaha Finance Australian Round, with the Welshman topping the combined FP1 and FP2 timesheets courtesy of a 1’30.189 best time from the morning.

Defending World Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) was the second quickest rider on Friday at Phillip Island courtesy of a 1’30.255 lap in FP1 and he was the fastest rider in the later session.

Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team) put in a good performance to end the day third fastest, also courtesy of his best FP1 effort, a 1’30.486, putting him just ahead of Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) - who was fourth and trailed Davies by just under four tenths.

On his return to WorldSBK Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was fifth quickest overall, thanks to his 1’30.627 lap registered in the afternoon outing.

Also going straight through to Tissot Superpole 2 on the opening weekend of the 2017 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship are Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team), Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia), Nicky Hayden (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team), Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Markus Reiterberger (Althea BMW Racing Team), who rounded out Friday’s top ten.

Savadori provided the most spectacular moment of the day, surviving a huge wobble at turn 11 in FP1.

The likes of Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team), meanwhile, will participate in Tissot Superpole 1 on Saturday having ended Friday 11^th and 12^threspectively.

Earlier in the day FP1 had been red flagged after less than ten minutes of action after an engine fault for Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) briefly left an oil leak on track, though the action soon got back underway. Camier ended Friday in 13^th place on the combined timesheets.

Rookie Randy Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was 14^th best and ran off track just over 15 minutes before the end of FP2, quickly returning to the asphalt after his excursion onto the grass.

Likewise newcomer Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) ran off track at turn 4 at one stage in his first official WorldSBK session in FP1 and the German ended up 16th overall.

Alex De Angelis (Pedercini Racing SC-Project) crashed at turn 11 but walked away from the incident late in the afternoon session and was Friday’s 15^th fastest man. Ayrton Badovini (Grillini Racing Team) was also a late crasher in FP2 and concluded Friday in 17^th place on the timesheets.

Aprilia rider Eugene Laverty went through a tough learning curve during the two day Phillip Island test, as he was unable to bring his strong pace shown in Portugal forward.

Understanding his issues with his Aprilia on the Monday, it then left Laverty with work to do in order to get his RSV4 RF back to how he feels comfortable. Improving slightly on the second day, the 30 year old suffered a small crash through turn 10 but walked away unhurt.

Suffering with confidence aboard his Italian machine, Laverty and his squad are optimistic they will be able to be back on the pace as the WorldSBK season kicks off on Friday.

Feeling positive following a tough couple of days, Laverty said: "Today was better for us in terms of both the weather and the running we did, and we made some good progress in the morning on the setup and other things we tried."

"The afternoon unfortunately was tough and we had a small crash, and it was hard to get the bike working how I wanted it to."

"The good thing is that we now have time to look at what we've learned in this test, and hopefully we can put it to use and be strong this weekend." He concluded

With just two days to go before the Australian WorldSBK kicks off, anticipation is building ahead of Laverty’s return to the series.