After yesterday’s stoppage and with the temperature rising at Imola, the third Free Practice of the weekend saw one of the most exciting 45 minutes sessions of the season to date with all riders keen to get themselves into the top twenty, and therefore into Tissot-Superpole.

In the final two minutes Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team) were trading fastest laps with each circulation of the undulating Italian track, but as the flag was waved it was Giugliano who had the local fans cheering.

All 28 riders improved on their best efforts of 24 hours ago meaning the top ten automatically seeded riders behind Giugliano and Sykes are as follows: Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team), Eugene Laverty (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team), Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) and Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team).

Niccolo Canepa (Althea Racing Ducati) improved but was unable to displace Leon Camier (BMW Motorrad BMW) as the top EVO category rider with Camier classified 11th a fraction of a second ahead of Canepa.

Ayrton Badovini (Team Bimota Alstare) was the sole faller in the session, the Italian will however take part in Superpole 1 after making it through Free Practice in x position.

Riders placed in the top ten are automatically seeded into the Superpole 2, with those 11th to 20th after the combined times from FP1, FP2 and FP3 having one final chance to make it into the final Pole Position shootout.