Ducati's Chaz Davies in a big rush

Ducati's in-form factory rider Chaz Davies continues to push his case to win his first world superbike (WorldSBK) race at Phillip Island, after setting the fastest time in today's practice sessions ahead of the season’s opening race tomorrow.

Although the 30-year-old didn't improve his best time in this afternoon's second 60-minute practice session, his earlier benchmark of 1min30.189secs was enough to see him remain on top and primed for Saturday's 12.30pm Superpole qualifying.

Davies holds the current WorldSBK lap record (1:30.949) at Phillip Island, but a victory has proved to be elusive for the Welshman around the 4.445km circuit – even though he gave it a red-hot go in 2016 before crashing out on the last lap after a titanic battle with eventual world champion Jonathan Rea.

Rea (Kawasaki, 1:30.255), Xavi Fores (Ducati, 1:30.486), Tom Sykes (Kawasaki, 1:30.573), Marco Melandri (Ducati, 1:30.627) and Alex Lowes (Yamaha, 1:30.817) all remained in the same positions after FP2, although Melandri and Lowes both improved their best laps this afternoon – as did eight other riders on the 21-bike grid.

Meanwhile, Italian Lorenzo Savadori 1:30.847) rocketed from 13th to seventh in FP2 on his factory Aprilia, with Nicky Hayden (Honda, 1:31.099), Markus Reiterberger (BMW, 1:31.129) and Jordi Torres (BMW, 1:31.13) next in line.

The top 10 are seeded straight through to Superpole 2, joined by the two fastest riders from the preceding Superpole 1. The 12 riders in Superpole 2 will then battle it out for grid positions at the pointy end of the field ahead of the season-opening 22-lap race at 3:00pm.

Eugene Laverty (Aprilia, 1:31.287), Michael van der Mark (Yamaha, 1:31.351) and Leon Camier (MV Agusta, 1:31.351) are among the championship heavyweights who will attempt to progress from Superpole 1, reserved for the riders who completed today's practice in positions 11-21.

Laverty is a proven Phillip Island performer, having won two WorldSBK races on the fast and flowing circuit, one behind Rea.

Aussie wildcard Josh Brookes (Yamaha, 1:31.973) struggled with top end speed and was 18th today, 1.784secs behind Davies.

Tickets are available at the gate. For more information visit www.worldsbk.com.au.

Key times on Saturday

World supersport
American Patrick Jacobsen has continued to be the pacesetter in the Supersport World Championship at Phillip Island today after dominating the start of official practice.

After ruling the roost in the final pre-season test at the circuit earlier this week, Jacobsen simply resumed where he left off by roaring around the GP circuit in a sizzling 1:33.087, nearly half a second ahead of Frenchman Jules Cluzel (Honda, 1:33.467).

Jacobsen is chasing his first WorldSSP win at Philip Island in Sunday's 18-lap race, while Cluzel was the winner in 2014 and 2015 when he was riding for MV Agusta.

Five of the six manufacturers on the 2017 WorldSSP grid finished inside the top 10 today, with Italian Federico Caricasulo (Yamaha, 1:33.-602) in third from new teammate Lucas Mahias (1:33.625), Roberto Rolfo (MV Agusta, 1:33.633), Hikari Okubo (Honda, 1:33.796), Alex Baldolini (MV Agusta, 12:33.940), Gino Rea (Kawasaki, 1:33.948), Luke Stapleford (Triumph, 1:33.949) and Kyle Smith (Honda, 1:34.015).

It was a bittersweet session for Stapleford though, who crashed at the high-speed turn eight, just minutes after Aussie wildcard Matt Edwards (Triumph) also came to grief in the same spot.

Aiden Wagner (Honda), 1:34.271) was the leading Aussie in 14th, followed by Lachlan Epis (Kawasaki, 1:35.038) in 22nd, Anthony West (Yamaha, 1:37.639) in 24th Edwards (1:42.203) in 25th.

Defending WorldSSP champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) is sitting out Phillip Island because of injury.

WorldSSP Superpole qualifying will commence at 1:30pm tomorrow.