Image: Supplied.

Arube.it Racing Ducati’s Marco Melandri stood atop the 2018 Motul Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) time-sheets at MotorLand Aragon on Friday.

The Italian kept his lead ahead of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) thanks to a 1m50.652s lap-time set in session two.

Behind the leading pair it was Rea’s teammate Tom Sykes on the second of the Kawasaki’s, as Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati and Jordi Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) completed the top five.

Making their debuts for the season, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing Junior Team Ducati) was P11, directly ahead of Davide Giugliano (Milwaukee Aprilia), who is lining up in place of the injured Eugene Laverty.

Evan Bros Yamaha’s Randy Krummenacher topped World Supersport at 1m54.750s, narrowly ahead of world champion Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha) and Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing) – the trio split by just 0.050s. Anthony West (EAB West Racing Kawasaki) was 14th and Lachlan Epis (Team GoEleven Kawasaki) 24th.

It was a terrific start to the World Supersport 300 Championship for Australian Tom Edwards (Nutec Benjan Kawasaki), setting the pace at 2m08.752s on-board the brand new Ninja 400.

Detailed results