Marco Melandri shrugged off his back and rib injuries picked up during the penultimate round at Portimao – that cost his title chances – to post the fastest time in the final qualifying practice at Magny–Cours.
The BMW rider lapped in 1’38″152 in the dying minutes which was enough to edge out Tom Sykes, who had dominated most of the session by just 0.
048s.
The practice was also halted with ten minutes left on the clock after Pedercini’s Alexander Lundh (the Swedish rider joined the team at the Moscow round) had a big crash in the same sector that had caught out Chaz Davies at the start of QP2.
Carlos Checa took third in what will be his last weekend with the Ducati 1098R and followed by Jonathan Rea and Max Biaggi in the fourth and fifth, but with same identical lap time.
Sylvain Guintoli was sixth and Leon Haslam with his finger injury was 7th.
Davide Giuliano was 8th on the other Althea Ducati, while Loris Baz finally made into the top ten after a torrid Friday.
Eugene Laverty was 10th and also making into this afternoon’s Superpole will be Michel Fabrizio and a very impressive Claudio Corti in 12th, after his debut yesterday morning on Pedercini’s second Kawasaki.
Leon Camier also made into the top sixteen along with Chaz Davies, Lorenzo Zanetti in his last weekend in WSBKs and Maxime Berger with the Red Devils Ducati.
WSBK Magny–Cours QP2 results: 01- Marco Melandri – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – 1’38.
152 02- Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 0.
048 03- Carlos Checa – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 0.
413 04- Jonathan Rea – Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 0.
517 05- Max Biaggi – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 0.
517 06- Sylvain Guintoli – PATA Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – + 0.
530 07- Leon Haslam – BMW Motorrad Motorsport – BMW S1000RR – + 0.
547 08- Davide Giugliano – Althea Racing – Ducati 1198 – + 0.
622 09- Loris Baz – Kawasaki Racing Team – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 0.
691 10- Eugene Laverty – Aprilia Racing Team – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 0.
826 11- Michel Fabrizio – BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet – BMW S1000RR – + 0.
838 12- Claudio Corti – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 0.
839 13- Leon Camier – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 0.
853 14- Chaz Davies – ParkinGO MTC Racing – Aprilia RSV4 Factory – + 0.
901 15- Lorenzo Zanetti – PATA Racing Team – Ducati 1198 – + 1.
024 16- Maxime Berger – Red Devils Roma – Ducati 1198 – + 1.
151 17- Ayrton Badovini – BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet – BMW S1000RR – + 1.
278 18- Hiroshi Aoyama – Honda World Superbike Team – Honda CBR 1000RR – + 1.
598 19- John Hopkins – FIXI Crescent Suzuki – Suzuki GSX-R 1000 – + 2.
386 20- Alexander Lundh – Team Pedercini – Kawasaki ZX-10R – + 2.
730 21- Norino Brignola – Grillini Progea Superbike Team – BMW S1000RR – + 4.
309