WORLD SUPERBIKES: Jonathan Rea denied practice clean sweep at Imola

Reigning World Superbike champion Rea had topped the times in FP1 and FP2 and was on course to remain at the summit in the final free practice session when Davies set an identical time of 1m 46.686s.

Davies was officially credited as being the leading rider yesterday as his second fastest time was one thousandth of a second better than Kawasaki rider Rea’s.

Ulsterman Rea has the chance to equal Carl Fogarty’s record of 59 WSBK wins this weekend, when a double would put the 31-year-old on level terms with the Blackburn rider.

Behind the top two, Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) bagged the third fastest time across all three sessions, 0.440 seconds off the leading pace.

Northern Ireland’s Eugene Laverty, making his return from injury on the Milwaukee Aprilia, had been amongst the fastest riders for much of the day before ending in 11th place when the dust had settled.

His team-mate, Lorenzo Savadori, was fourth fastest ahead of Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki).

Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha) was unable to make it into today’s Superpole 2 directly, only scoring the 12th best time.

Spain’s Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Ducati), was the leading independent rider out on track in seventh. British Superbike contender Leon Haslam was eighth as he made his World Superbike return for the Puccetti Kawasaki team.

Superpole qualifying takes place this morning ahead of race one at 12:00 BST, with race two at the same time tomorrow.