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Tribune News Network
Doha
Triple champion Jonathan Rea made a flying start to his bid of conquering the floodlit Losail International Circuit topping the first Free Practice (FP) session as the 13th and final Acerbis Qatar Round of the 2017 World Superbike (WSBK) Championship commenced on Thursday evening.
Rea of Kawasaki Racing Team led the way with a 1'57.666 lap ahead of team-mate Tom Sykes, who is preparing to battle Chaz Davies for the runner-up spot in the championship finale.
Ahead of the final races of the year on Friday and Saturday, the riders got a feel of the desert conditions in FP1 and they will all be pushing as hard as ever this weekend in order to end the year on a high.
Rea was the sharpest performer on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR, lapping a hefty 0.689s margin ahead of Sykes.
The Northern Irishman's hot lap came towards the end of the hour-long practice session as many of the riders improved on their times.
Davies was 0.882s down on Rea in third place, while a lap time 1.013s off the triple World Champion's best effort put Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) fourth.
This weekend in Qatar Sykes and Davies will battle it out for the runners-up position and both will be looking to gain any psychological advantage they can before Tissot Superpole and Race 1 on Friday.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) finished the session in fifth and sixth places respectively.
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Smith on top in World Supersport first session
In World Supersport (WSSP), the first FP session was topped by Kyle Smith as title contender Kenan Sofuoglu made a steady comeback from injury.
Smith has clinched victory in the past two WSSP rounds in Qatar and duly demonstrated his impressive pace at the Losail Circuit by topping FP1 having endured a tricky campaign for Gemar Team Lorini Honda having failed to reach the podium all season.
The British rider narrowly held off championship leader Lucas Mahias to take top spot by 0.072s.
