Sykes and Savadori dominate the Friday sessions of the SBK at Sepang

The World Superbike action kicked off at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia, where we once again saw the championship riders and Supersport riders hit the track to contest the sixth round of the 2016 calendar.

In the first session, we saw Tom Sykes on his Kawasaki set a lap time of 2’05.613, while the 66 posted this time at the last gasp, with the chequered flag already waved and on his final fast lap, leaving behind his teammate who until then had been dominating. In second place we have Jonathan Rea, just 0.097s behind Sykes, making for maximum equality.

The third position went to Nicky Hayden, who delivered the big surprise on the Honda, being the third-fastest bike and finishing 0.317s behind the leader. He was the third rider to go under 2.06, while the rest of the grid were all above that mark. The FP1 top 10 was completed by Van der Mark in 4th, Reiterberger 5th, Lowes 6th, Torres 7th, De Angelis 8th, Savadori 9th and Camier 10th. Forés 13th.

In the second session, we saw rain make an appearance at certain points, complicating the ability to keep lowering lap times as had been expected. In this second outing at the Sepang circuit, Savadori was the best, setting a time of 2’03.951, undoubtedly a good time and the only rider to lap in the 2:03s. Meanwhile, in second place was Nicky Hayden, who finished 0.216s behind the leader; it seems the American has got the “feeling” for the Malaysian track.

For the FP2 top 10 we saw Reiterberger 3rd, Lowes 4th, Giugliano 5th, Torres 6th, Van der Mark 7th, Davies 8th, West 9th and Rea 10th. Forés 14th.

On to the superpole.

Source | WorldSBK