WSBK Silverstone: Carlos Checa tops FP1 before the rain

The usual English weather hampered the World Superbike riders first free practice at Silverstone.
The session opened to a damp track and a little more than twenty minutes later rain hit the circuit, sending the riders scrurrying back to the pits and in the last minutes return to track to scrub in their wet tires and check out their performance in the wet.

The quickest rider before the rain was Althea Racing’s Carlos Checa who posted a 2’06.

384 lap time and he was 0.
248s faster than home boy Tom Sykes – Checa and Sykes were the only riders to break the 2.
07 barrier.
Third went to Jakub Smrz who was followed by his former team mate a surprising Sylvain Guintoli, who is now riding for Pata Racing after cutting loose from Liberty Racing before the Brno round.
Marco Melandri who won both Brno races was 5th followed by Kawasaki’s Loris Baz and Michel Fabrizio (BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet).

FIXI Crescent Suzuki’s Leon Camer and BMW’s Leon Haslam were 8th and 9th respectively, while current points leader Max Biaggi completed the top ten after a sub par performance during the last round.

David Johnson who is replacing Leandro Mercado in Pedercini Kawasaki, as the Argentinean rider is returning to Superstock for the rest of the season was 21st, while Brett McCormick gingerly took to track after his long recovery following his horrific accident at Assen was last on the timesheets as he completed only five laps.
Davide Giugliano was the only rider to crash during the session and he binned it at the Chapel Curve WSBK Silverstone FP1 results:01- Carlos Checa – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – 2’06.
38402- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 0.
24803- Jakub Smrz – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 0.
69704- Sylvain Guintoli – PATA Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – + 0.
95705- Marco Melandri – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 0.
98106- Loris Baz – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 1.
35607- Michel Fabrizio – BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet – BMW S1000RR – + 1.
36308- Leon Camier – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 1.
59709- Leon Haslam – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 1.
66310- Max Biaggi – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 1.
70911- Chaz Davies – ParkinGO MTC Racing – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 1.
71812- Jonathan Rea – Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 1.
99713- Eugene Laverty – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 2.
16214- Maxime Berger – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 2.
25415- Hiroshi Aoyama – Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 2.
37016- John Hopkins – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 2.
67817- Ayrton Badovini – BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet – BMW S1000RR – + 3.
14318- Niccolò Canepa – Red Devils Roma – Ducati 1198 – + 3.
14619- Lorenzo Zanetti – PATA Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – + 3.
45420- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 4.
26921- David Johnson – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 6.
93722- David Salom – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 8.
76823- Norino Brignola – Grillini Progea Superbike Team – BMW S1000RR – + 9.
36824- Brett McCormick – Team Effenbert Liberty Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 11.
174