Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea was fastest on the opening day of the fourth-round World Superbike championship meeting at Imola in Italy today, with the second free practice session this afternoon cut short by 12 minutes.

A broken drainage cover at turn four at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari caused a red flag and, with track workers unable to repair it, the day’s activities were abandoned.

Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate, Leon Haslam, who had been preparing to return to the track with fresh tyres when today’s session was cancelled, was seventh fastest overall in today’s two free practices at the 4.936km Imola circuit.

A full World Superbike schedule is expected to run at Imola tomorrow, with Free Practice 3 going at 09.45 to determine which riders will take part in the afternoon Superpole sessions.

Jonathan Rea - 1st

I really enjoyed being back at Imola today. The bike is clearly working quite well here but we still need to make some good improvements, especially getting the power down off the slower corners and final turning with engine brake. But for our first day we’ve got to be happy because our pace is OK. The ultimate lap time I didn’t think was very fast compared to the race or the test here last year. But the track is quite fresh and there’s not a lot of rubber down – there haven’t been any big meetings here before us. Tomorrow when the track gets a bit more rubbered-in I think you’ll see the pace starting to hot up a little bit. We’ll work hard tonight to refine the bike even more and hopefully go with that pace.

Leon Haslam - 7th

This morning felt pretty good and I did the whole session on the harder tyre. I felt we could have got into the 48s with our last tyre but I got held up a bit. This afternoon I got a couple of laps together on the SC0. I went slightly quicker but couldn’t really get a good lap together and then the red flag came out. I just didn’t really get a chance to go for a good lap time on a softer tyre. Generally, I felt really happy this morning and just didn’t get a really good go at it this afternoon.

Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator

The day was cut short by 12 minutes but Jonathan was in P1, which is good. He did a little run with some good lap times but still we have to improve in some sectors. If you’re P1 you cannot complain too much, though – there’s work to do but it was a good day for Jonathan. On Leon’s side of the garage it was a shame that the session was cut short because we had just put in new tyres and he was ready to go. I’m sure he would have improved his lap time but it didn’t happen. The morning was a little better than this afternoon, when he struggled a bit with the grip, but overall a positive day.


Free Practice Results

1 - Jonathan Rea - 1m48.147s - GBR - HONDA - Pata Honda

2 - Tom Sykes - 1m48.187s - GBR - KAWASAKI - Kawasaki Racing Team

3 - Marco Melandri - 1m48.261s - ITA - APRILIA - Aprilia Racing Team

4 - Sylvain Guintoli - 1m48.323s - FRA - APRILIA - Aprilia Racing Team

5 - Davide Guigliano - 1m48.329s - ITA - DUCATI - Ducati Superbike Team

6 - Chaz Davies - 1m48.592s - GBR - DUCATI - Ducati Superbike Team

7 - Leon Haslam - 1m48.999s - GBR - HONDA - Pata Honda

8 - Eugene Laverty - 1m49.259s - IRL - SUZUKI - Voltcom Crescent Suzuki

9 - Loris Baz - 1m49.600s - FRA - KAWASAKI - Kawasaki Racing Team

10 - Leon Camier - 1m49.610s - GBR - BMW - BMW Motorrad Ita

.