As the WorldSBK riders returned to action after their summer break at the Prosecco DOC German Round Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) topped the Friday timesheets with a new lap record of 1’37.172 around the Lausitzring track.
Sykes’ colleague Jonathan Rea and the Kawasaki Racing Team duo’s Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rival Chaz Davies were also in the top three.
Sykes also led the way in FP1 with a 1’37.337 lap which was also under the previous lap record, before going even faster in the afternoon. Sykes then crashed in FP2 at turn 4, but was not adversely affected by the accident.
In an incident packed FP2 session the riders had carried out just under 25 minutes of practice before the red flag came out following a crash for Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) at turn 14. As marshals worked to clean the track a further disruption was then caused by heavy rain – which led to a delay of over an hour in restarting the session.
Earlier in the day in clear conditions at the 4.255km Lausitzring track Sykes had set a rapid pace on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR with that aforementioned new lap record, whilst Rea was +0.167s behind him and Davies was marginally slower, being +0.189s off P1. Neither Rea nor Davies would improve in FP2 and therefore ultimately ended the day +0.332s and +0.354s behind Sykes respectively.
Milwaukee Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori was fourth fastest on the combined timesheets thanks to his best FP1 time and in the afternoon Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) moved into the top five.
Savadori’s Milwaukee Aprilia teammate Eugene Laverty was sixth fastest overall. Meanwhile, returning to WorldSBK for a wildcard ride at Round 9 Germany’s Markus Reiterberger (Van Zon Remeha BMW) placed as the top BMW rider in seventh overall.
The combined Friday top ten also featured Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team).