Guintoli and Lowes the best of the SBK QP in Istanbul Park

The World Superbike and Supersport championships have held their first official practice session at the Istanbul Park Circuit, where we already have the provisional pole sitters ahead of QP2 and tomorrow’s SBK Superpole, but the most interesting thing is what we have been able to see on the Turkish track.

The first riders to take to the track were the Supersport riders, with Sam Lowes as the fastest, setting a lap time of 2.00.000, nailing the time in spectacular fashion. As a result, the Yamaha rider has become the provisional pole sitter for the class. Meanwhile, second place went to Sofuoglu, who finished 0.678s behind the leader.

The rest of the top 10 was completed by: Marino 3rd, Tamburini 4th, Salom 5th, Zanetti 6th, De Rosa 7th, VD Mark 8th, Coghlan 9th and Scassa 10th. Baldo 14th and Calero Pérez 26th. As for crashes, we saw Tok’s, and other riders with technical problems.

Behind them, the Superbike class took to the Turkish track, with Sylvain Guintoli as the best of this QP1 at Istanbul Park, setting a lap time of 1.56.190, and for now he is the provisional pole sitter, but we will have to wait for QP2 and especially the Superpole that will be held tomorrow.

The second spot went to Marco Melandri, who finished more than half a second behind the leader. Meanwhile, the top 10 was completed by Laverty 3rd, Sykes 4th, Elías 5th, Cluzel 6th, Davies 7th, Giugliano 8th, Haslam 9th and Fabrizio 10th. The negative side is that Checa did not go out on track; we didn’t know very well what was going on, but the latest news points to a fractured scaphoid for the veteran rider. We will see what happens, but it is bad news for our dear number 7.

Onward to more in Turkey!

Photo | WorldSBK and teams