Former World Superbike Champion Tom Sykes took charge in the third free practice session at Laguna Seca today and will go into Superpole leading the way but he was chased hard by the works Ducati pair of Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano.
Sykes put in the quickest time of the weekend so far when he lapped at 1’23.105 right at the beginning of the session and his time was never headed but Davies had a good go, bunging in a 1’23.195 to get to within a tenth with his last lap.
The Welshman had been on pole schedule twice in the session but both times lost out in the final sector while team-mate Giugliano was just over a tenth further back and is a quarter of a second off the pace.
Red Devils Aprilia’s Jordi Torres launched himself into fourth place with his last fast lap, just beating team-mate Leon Haslam who, like Sykes, set his quickest time at the start of the session and then worked on tyre life.
Haslam’s 1’23.521 was only a tenth slower than Torres, who hadn’t ridden the Californian track before yesterday and the pair were ahead of runaway series leader Jonathan Rea, who finished in sixth place, 0.001s slower than Haslam.
Nico Canepa continues to impress at a track where he has been fast in the past, taking seventh place on the Althea Ducati while Voltcom Suzuki’s Alex Lowes made it into Superpole two automatically with his last lap the session.
Lowes ended in eighth place on a 1’23.984 to go ahead of Sylvain Guintoli in ninth while David Salom rounded out the top ten. Ayrton Badovini and Randy De Puniet were next along with Leon Camier ending in 14th place.
