Kawasaki’s Tom Sykes kept his spot at the top of the Lausitzring WorldSBK timesheets despite a crash in the first 20 minutes which meant a re-build for his team as torrential rain a few minutes later put paid to any changes in the running order.
Only Sykes, Marco Melandri, Michael Van Der Mark and Raffaele De Rosa went faster than their FP1 times in a session that was initially stopped when Alex Lowes’ Pata Yamaha exploded, and the resulting fluid caused Stefan Bradl to crash heavily but unhurt. While the track was under red flag conditions, the heavens opened keeping pitlane closed for an hour.
The rain meant Lowes kept his spot Superpole two. His team managed to get his R1 fixed with 15 minutes of the session so the Briton could get back out on a damp circuit. Neither he nor team-mate Van Der Mark tested at the German track, so the loss of dry track time could prove crucial over race distance.
Van Der Mark missed out on Superpole by two less than a tenth of a second despite improving to a 1'38.541 while Melandri hauled himself into fifth place, upping his pace to a 1’37.858 - nearly seven-tenths slower than Sykes who increased his gap over team-mate Jonathan Rea to 1’37.132 - two-tenths under the outright lap record. The Briton and the Italian were the only two top-ten riders to improve on their FP1 times.
Entrants to Superpole two
1 66 T. SYKES GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’37.172
2 1 J. REA GBR Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1’37.504
3 7 C. DAVIES GBR Aruba.it Racing - Ducati Ducati Panigale R 1’37.526
4 32 L. SAVADORI ITA Milwaukee Aprilia Aprilia RSV4 RF 1’37.721
5 33 M.MELANDRI ITA Aruba.it Racing - Ducati Ducati Panigale R 1’37.858
6 50 E. LAVERTY IRL Milwaukee Aprilia Aprilia RSV4 RF 1’37.880
7 21 M.REITERBERGER GER Van Zon Remeha BMW BMW S 1000 RR 1’37.962
8 2 L. CAMIER GBR MV Agusta Reparto Corse MV Agusta 1000 F4 1’38.165
9 81 J. TORRES ESP Althea BMW Racing Team BMW S 1000 RR 1’38.462
10 22 A. LOWES GBR Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team Yamaha YZF R1 1’38.470
