Reigning World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea was the fastest od day one in Thailand. Photo credit: World SBK
In what was an action packed first day of racing in Chang International Circuit, where this weekend the World Superbike Championship has its second round of the season, it was Kawasaki Racing duo Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes that eventually came up on top after the third and final free practice session of the day.
Reigning three-times SBK champion Jonathan Rea made steady improvements throughout the day, but by the end of FP3 he was on top of the timesheet to lead the list of riders that are automatically qualified to tomorrows Superpole session.
Second fastest was Tom Sykes, making a 1-2 for Kawasaki in day one in Thailand, but the surprise of the day was Spanish Jordi Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) that was leading almost up to the end of FP3, but still managed to finish the day with the third fastest time around Chang.
Jordi Torres and the MV Agusta F4 made quite an impression with 3rd fastest time of the day. Photo credit: World SBK
But the differences are pretty small between the Superbike riders!
The first five riders are separated by only one tenth of a second, with Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies being 4th and 5th fastest, but more impressive is that the first 12 riders of the combined timesheets for this first day are separated by less than seven tenths!
Given these small differences, we can expect some tight racing and a competitive Superpole session tomorrow.