MV Agusta’s Leon Camier gave WorldSBK champion-elect Jonathan Rea a hard time in the opening Magny-Cours free practice session, topping the timesheets until the Kawasaki man came out for his final run and edged out the former BSB champion by 0.183s.
Camier emerged from pitlane at the French track with 15 minutes to go and began a run of laps which saw him depose Rea from the number one spot with a 1’38.265 and then upped his game with a 1’38.203. He then went faster again with a 1’38.032 and was in course for a sub-1’38s lap but had that lap cancelled for running off track.
Rea then re-appeared with five minutes left to stick in a 1’38.010 to retake the lead and cemented it with a 1’37.849 with his final flying lap. The top six are covered by less than half a second with the top ten covered by a blanket of one second.
Rea is, as usual, the man with the pace, putting in nine laps in the 1’38s over four runs but Camier is not far behind with five.
Milwaukee Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori put in one flier to claim third place on a 1’38.235 while Marco Melandri is the leading Ducati in fourth with a 1’38.249 but had three laps cancelled by running off track. Aruba team-mate Chaz Davies was fourth on a 1’38.292, showing the same kind of pace as old friend Camier.
Alex Lowes leapt up to sixth with his last lap, getting some cues from Camier in front of him, and edged out Pata Yamaha team-mate Michael Van Der Mark. Xavi Fores, Jordi Torres ended just ahead of the injured Tom Sykes in tenth place.
Eugene Laverty had a small crash at the beginning of the session, coming back to 14th place and one behind Anthony West.
