Red Devils Aprilia’s Leon Haslam left it till his final lap to set the fastest time in the final World Superbike free practice session at his local track of Donington Park this morning.

In much colder conditions than yesterday’s final timed outing, home town hero Haslam went 0.01 seconds under the fastest time of Kawasaki Racing’s Tom Sykes, with the Smalley rider lapping a 1’28.163. Sykes was one tenth off his best time, and in FP4 had to settle for a 1’28.250, edging ahead of his team-mate Jonathan Rea by 0.03 seconds.

The Aruba.it Ducati pairing of Davide Giugliano and Chaz Davies were one of only three riders inside the top ten who did not improve on their laps from FP3. The Italian and Welshman ended the 30 minute session in fourth and sixth fastest respectively on the sheets.

The Voltcom backed Suzuki of Alex Lowes seems to flourish in the colder conditions and the Derby-based rider was able to improve his best lap of the weekend by 0.04s to place fifth on the timing-screens. MV Agusta’s Leon Camier couldn’t manage a time inside the 1’28’s and was ninth quickest, with a 1’29.008 rotation going three tenths slower than yesterday’s final session.

At first it was Sykes who threw down the gauntlet to his fellow World Superbike colleagues, but his team-mate Jonathan Rea fought back and after ten minutes of being out on the Leicestershire circuit there was only 0.001 seconds separating the pair. At the flag former MCE British Superbike rider Matteo Baiocco rounded off the top ten.