In a close combined free practice ranking, after two hours of dry track time, the top 12 riders were separated by less than a second at this long 5.380km circuit.
The fast and flowing track layout makes for generally high corner speeds and corner entries and each KRT rider was caught out at one stage of the second session, despite making good progress with their overall set-up at this unique venue.
Rea ran on at one corner under braking to make sure he did not risk a crash, while Sykes was forced off track to a halt when his rear brake locked and pushed him onto the gravel. Getting back to pitlane for repairs he completed his first day on a well-used front tyre, but still made it directly into Saturday’s Superpole 2 qualifying, along with Rea.
As the official Ninja ZX-10R riders approach the first race of the Losail weekend on Saturday both Rea and Sykes are the only two riders who can still win the championship, with Jonathan enjoying a 48 point lead over Tom but with 50 points available for any rider who wins both races.
Both KRT riders know the possible significance of the first race on Saturday, when Tom has to win and Jonathan score less than two points for Sykes to keep the championship fight going through to the final race of the year on Sunday.
Neither rider is taking anything for granted and both have already expressed a desire to race for wins at the end of a season in which Kawasaki has already won the Manufacturers’ Championship.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “I think we can make some improvements to be there with Chaz Davies tomorrow and I feel comfortable with the bike. We have been making some good changes in the bike set-up and we worked a lot with our Showa suspension set-up, so we will look to improve even further tomorrow. This is the first race in a long time that we have managed to do a long run on a Friday. We did 15 laps, which is almost race distance, so I am quite happy. This is probably the cleanest and most positive Friday we have had, even though I ran on at one corner. I just braked that little bit late and with the track being dirty I ran off line a little bit to try and make the corner. I decided to abort it and I did not realise the gravel was so close. We got going again right away and did another lap in the 1’58s to finish the run. Out and out laps times are very close but I think race pace is a different story.”
Tom Sykes, stated: “On paper ninth looks a lot worse than it is, but for sure we lost a lot of time and almost had a crash on the entry of T2 when we had a brake issue. We were a bit lucky with that. We got the general set-up workload done, which was good, but we ended up not being able to use two fresh tyres to go for a fast lap. I put a big flat spot on the rear tyre when I ran onto the gravel and my best lap time was with an already used front. I was making the times with seven laps on the rear and 18 on the front, which is not bad. We have done a lot with the general feeling of the bike and components so I feel that now we have the chance to put everything together for Saturday.”
One-off Losail rider Leon Haslam (Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) was 11th fastest despite losing some time in the pits this morning. He was less than a second from the overnight pole time in his return to WorldSBK after a season in BSB. Local rider Saeed Al Sulaiti (Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) took his Ninja ZX-10R to 19th place in the combined times. Roman Ramos (GoEleven Kawasaki) was one place behind, with Gianluca Vizziello 22nd and Dominic Schmitter 24th for the Grillini Racing Kawasaki team.