SBK, FP2: sparks between Sykes and Rea, Davies in flames

You only need to glance at the timesheets to see what was going on at Donington Park today, where the seventh SBK event of the 2016 season is taking place: occupying five of the top six places, the Brits did the groundwork in terms of setting up their bikes ahead of qualifying and the two races.

As in the morning, it was once again Tom Sykes with the Kawasaki who dominated, putting in 48 times laps and setting a best of 1’27”927 with a top speed of 271 km/h,the highest together with that of his teammate Johnny Rea, second today but only 0.039 behind Tom.

It was the green bikes that led the way on their home turf, with the domination of the british armada only broken up by Davide Giugliano, in third place with the Ducati Panigale of team Aruba. The Italian is roughly 0.35 behind the leader but also completed less laps (44) than Sykes.

Following Giugliano are Alex Lowes, fourth with a solid Yamaha R1, though still hurting after the shoulder injury sustained at Sepang, Chaz Davies with the second Panigale that unexpectedly caught fire due to a technical problem, forcing the Welshman to jump off his bike to avoid the flames that destroyed the bike and left the rider stuck in the garage for almost half the session. In reality even Davies' boot caught fire but Chaz didn't notice... The Welshman was lying fifth but this setback put him down to thirteenth. Another Brit up near the front was Leon Camier with the  MV Agusta F4.

Sixth for Lorenzo Savadori and the Aprilia RSV4 of team Iodaracing more than a second behind Sykes. Torres on the BMW precedes the debuting Cameron Beaubier and Nicky Hayden is tenth on the first of the two Honda CBRs.