Aruba Ducati's Marco Melandri has taken charge of the Aragon WorldSBK timesheets, fending off a late charge by reigning champ Jonathan Rea in the dry second session to edge towards lap-record pace.
Melandri put in a 1'50.652 with his final flying lap to lead into the lunch break while Rea was languishing in ninth place when he came out for his last run. The Kawasaki man managed a 1'50.691 to close the gap to 0.0039s with team-mate Tom Sykes, who had been at the sharp end for the whole session, ending on a 1'50.849.
Undisputed WorldSBK King of Aragon Chaz Davies slipped back to fourth from top spot with eight minutes left to run but is less than half a second in arrears while Pata Yamaha's Michael van der Mark denied Jordi Torres a top-five slot with his last effort.
Xavi Fores, who has been tipped for a win here in front of his home crowd, finished in seventh, one ahead of Alex Lowes. Michael Ruben Rinaldi backed up his wet-weather pace from this morning with a 1'51.954 for ninth with Lorenzo Savadori putting the Milwaukee Aprilia in tenth.
Davide Giugliano put his RSV4 in 11th place, one ahead of Leon Camier who will be getting to grips with the new Marelli electronics on the dry track. Loris Baz, Vladimir Leonov and Roman Ramos complete the top 15.
