Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea threw caution to the wind to set the fastest lap of the day at Aragon’s WorldSBK round, going fastest as rain flags were being waved and the competition were abandoning laps around him.
Rea had completed a 19-lap race simulation in the afternoon session and then went out again to set a fast time to ensure a place in Superpole two but as he rolled down pitlane, spots of rain appeared and the pitlane got busy as riders came in.
Only Marco Melandri, Chaz Davies and Alex Lowes put in competitive lap times in the conditions with the Italian going top on a 1’50.161 with five minutes left to run. Lowes had set the fastest overall sector one time but then abandoned his effort just after Davies had hauled himself from seventh to third.
Rea was sitting in fourth and, as he did at the two previous rounds, went out to stamp his authority on the session, ignoring the rain spots on his visor to put in a 1’50.062 as the quickest of the day and well inside Davies’ lap record.
It was Davies’ only session as he spent the morning in the garage with an engine issue and the Welshman ended his day in fourth just three-tenths off the pace. Rea’s team-mate Tom Sykes had been sitting pretty at the top of the sheets but he came in as the rain appeared, slipping down to third with a 1’50.305.Lowes didn’t improve on his time from this morning but the 1’50.641 from this morning was enough to secure fifth place and Xavi Fores finished sixth after also not going quicker. A crash for Althea BMW’s Jordi Torres meant he didn’t improve but stays in seventh.
Michael Van Der Mark was also on the list of non-improvers and he stayed in eighth. Milwaukee Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty did step it up and grabbed an automatic place in qualfying two with his 1’51.054, a half-second improvement from this morning.
Ioda Aprilia’ Tati Mercado was the last of the Superpole two men but he was under pressure from the Red Bull Honda duo of Stefan Bradl and Nicky Hayden.
Leon Camier got a total of 14 laps in on his MV Agusta but only six were flying laps and he finished down in 17th.
