The rain in Jerez de la Frontera made the first free practice session of the World Superbike Championship almost useless. Only four out of the 24 riders in the field ventured onto the track, completing just four laps each.
Among this quartet, Leandro Mercado was the fastest. The Argentine rider, aboard a Honda from the Petronas MIE Racing Honda Team, set the best lap time at 2m01.309s, beating Michael van der Mark (BMW) by a clear 1.405s.
Florian Alt (Holzhauer Racing Promotion/Honda) finished third, having led much of the session, while fourth place went to Oliver König (Orelac Racing Movisio/Kawasaki), who was 3.194s off the top time.
Timesheet:
