Rea leads wet FP2, van der Mark stays fastest overall

Full WorldSBK FP2 results at Magny-Cours

Jonathan Rea has topped the wet FP2 session at Magny-Cours but Michael van der Mark retains the fastest time on a Friday practice curtailed by the weather.

The rain returned to Magny-Cours for the Friday afternoon session which denied any of the World Superbike riders the opportunity to improve on their outright best lap times from the FP1, which dried out as the session progressed, to see Michael van der Mark retain top spot on the combined times for Pata Yamaha ahead of Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam.

Despite a fall during FP1 and a hairy moment at Turn 3 in the afternoon session, Rea topped FP2 with a 1m 54.548s to edge out former team-mate Tom Sykes on the BMW by 0.229s with Leon Haslam in third place but over one second off Rea.

Ryuichi Kiyonari surged into fourth place for Moriwaki Althea Honda as Loris Baz once again claimed fifth place for Ten Kate Racing Yamaha.

Leon Camier, making his long-awaited World Superbike comeback having been out of action with a shoulder injury since May, grabbed sixth place for Moriwaki Althea Honda ahead of Markus Reiterberger (BMW) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Puccetti Kawasaki).

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) and Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Honda) completed the top 10 ahead of wildcard Sylvain Barrier on the Brixx Ducati.

With Jordi Torres (Pedericni Kawasaki) ahead of GRT pair Marco Melandri and Sandro Cortese who suffered a late tumble in FP2, Lenadro Mercado was the only other rider to set a lap time Orelac Kawasaki in FP2, as both factory Yamaha and Ducati riders plus Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven Ducati) opted not to head out on track in the wet session.