Chaz Davies bossed the World Superbike first practice session at Imola on his Aruba Ducati as the Welshman got his team’s home round off to the perfect start.
Davies did some battling with the Kawasaki duo of Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes in the opening stages of the session at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari but came into his own as it wore on, finishing a huge half second ahead of Leon Camier at the end of proceedings.
Rea had begun the session brightly, as had his team-mate with the two Kawasakis contending with one another for top spot as Davies eased himself into contention, taking over at the top briefly before Sykes regained it.
The action was hotting up nicely, with the three swapping positions as the likes of Honda’s Nicky Hayden and the Milwaukee BMW duo of Josh Brookes and Karel Abraham learnt their way around a track which Brookes hasn't seen for ten years and Abraham ever before.
However, the session was red-flagged with 35 minutes remaining after the Grillini Kawasaki of Josh Hook had spilt oil on the circuit, the delay upsetting the rhythm of a number of riders.
When the action returned, Davies wasted no time on his Panigale as he took the Aruba Ducati machine into first place, just ahead of Sykes and some excellent work from Camier sitting third.
Rea continued to hold fourth, further off the pace than he would have liked to be, as Sylvain Guintoli got his first laps in on the Pata Yamaha and worked his way into fifth.
By now Davies was leading Sykes by a sizeable margin, and the Welshman continued to pour it on, consolidating his position at the top of the leaderboard three times with only Leon Camier daring to cut the lead on a couple of occasions, but not by enough to truly trouble the Ducati rider.
With five minutes remaining, the main protagonists of Sykes, Rea, Guintoli and Davies’ team-mate Davide Giugliano left the pits to chase but the quartet failed to trouble the 29-year-old leader as the clock ticked down.
Camier continued to work valiantly on the MV Agusta, and he did cut into Davies’ lead twice but the Welshman responded in menacing fashion as he saved his best for last, strengthening top spot by an impressive 0.5s on his very last lap.
At the end of the session, a late lap from Lorenzo Savadori saw him take third, just ahead of Rea, Giugliano, Guintoli and Matteo Baiocco with Sykes a disappointing eighth by the end.
The Althea BMWs of Markus Reiterberger and Jordi Torres rounded out the top ten, while the Hondas of Michael Van Der Mark and Nicky Hayden have work to do ahead of FP2, finishing 12th and 13th, just behind Alex Lowes on the Pata Yamaha.
Milwaukee BMW had another difficult start to life at a new circuit with Brookes and Abraham finish 16th and 18th, respectively.
