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The positions might have reversed, but it's still a Kawasaki. Not that of Tom Sykes, but of Johnny Rea. After setting the second fastest time in the morning, the Northern Irish rider set the pace in the afternoon, improving on his team-mate's time by three tenths to stop the clock on 1’35”383. The number one is impressive both in terms of the flying lap and overall pace, lapping consistently in 1’35”, something that no-one else has been able to do up until now.
Behind him is the Ducati of Chaz Davies, able to push through in the final stage and finish just over a tenth of a second from the front (+0.112). This saw him close 0.037 of a second ahead of the ZX10-R of Sykes, who had to settle for third place.
In this second session, the steps taken by Jordi Torres (+0.429) and Lorenzo Savadori (+0.555) have not gone unnoticed. The Spanish BMW rider completed the session in fourth place, ahead of the Milwaukee rider, back on track after the cranial trauma he suffered at Buri Ram. Finally a ray of light for the Italian, who made the most of Rea's slipstream, after finishing outside of the top ten in the morning. Behind him are Camier and Laverty, within 0.055 of each other.
One of the morning's stand-outs, Michael van der Mark did not improve in the afternoon (11th, +1.017). The Dutch rider, fourth in the morning, was kept out of the top ten in the afternoon by rookie Krummenacher. A small step forward for Marco Melandri (+0.887), who set the ninth time behind the Yamaha of Lowes (who crashed once again though without consequences). The Italian is still eight tenths from the front though...
Alex De Angelis is down in thirteenth place (+1.675, after closing seventh in FP1), followed by Forés and De Rosa. A session to forget for the Spaniard who only completed six laps. Things went no better for Nicky Hayden, just eight laps and eighteenth place behind Mercado. The Argentinian also suffered a crash.
