Monza, Italy

Toward the end of the morning's free practice session, it looked likely the front row would end up an all-Kawasaki affair, but Sam Lowes was able to snatch his familiar position at the top in the flag. With both Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret recording higher speed trap figures, the slip stream effect in the race should prove important, as usual.

Results:

A storm hit Monza overnight and, in spite of the sun, the morning's qualifying session was declared wet. The track dried out towards the end, allowing a few riders to improve their positions from yesterday and sort out the lower slots for Superpole later. Without a complete dry session, the afternoon's free practice will be crucial to get a setting for both qualifying and racing. Marco Melandri remained in provisional pole, alongside Jonathan Rea, but Sylvain Guintoli was fastest in the session, improving his time, if not his position, from yesterday.

Results:

Press releases from the World Superbike and World Supersport teams after the first day of practice at Monza:

At Italy's temple of speed, last year's World Superbike weekend was ruined by rain and tyres. This morning's session was equally plagued, giving everyone a wasted morning as the forecast for the remainder of the weekend is sun, sun and more sun. The good weather finally turned up, courtesy of a delay in qualifying, and the slicks went on. Top speeds increased by 50kmh and lap times decreased by 20 seconds.

After a delayed start caused by an oil spill at the Ascari chicane, one that required cleaning up, the track was dry enough to warrant slick tyres. Marco Melandri was quickest with his BMW, pipping a surprising Jonathan Rea, while Sylvain Guintoli was the fastest in a straight line, clocking a respectable 333.6kmh in his weekend's effort to break the outright top speed record of 339.5kmh, set by Max Biaggi on a similar Aprilia RSV4.

As this was the first dry session, it's difficult to judge what the multiple 1'43 and 1'44 laps registered by the front-runners means, but there's a second to lop off the laptimes before they can beat Max Biaggi's 1'41.745, and that might require qualifying tyres.

Results:

Kev Goghlan takes provisional pole alongside Andrea Antoneli, showing once again that they have skill and speed in the wet.

Results:

Rain held riders back from the super-fast times, with riders not even touching 290km/h on the wet tyres. This allowed Jonathan Rea to make the best of his slower bike and record the fastest time of the morning.

Results:

Wet practice at Monza meant times were down, several riders didn't even head out and the session was red-flagged mid-way through the session. After the restart, this didn't stop our regular fast qualifier Sam Lowes recording the best lap of the session, with a 2'01.016, an unsurprising 13 seconds off lap record pace.

Results:

Press releases from the World Superbike and World Supersport teams ahead of this weekend's WSBK round at the iconic Monza circuit:

After already having staged the first race, the World Superbike calendar has finally been updated and lost its provisional status. Today, the FIM issued an official, finalized version of the 2013 World Superbike calendar, confirming the changes we reported on yesterday.

The Silverstone race has been confirmed, and the Subject To Contract status has been removed from the Portimao and Imola rounds. The round originally scheduled for June 23rd has been scrapped, and a new round scheduled for Istanbul Park on September 15th. The replacement of Istanbul Park for the 23rd June round, for which Brno had originally been penciled in, means that the Superstock calendar is reduced by one round, from 10 races to just 9, while the World Superbike calendar now has 15 rounds planned, including two races in the UK, at Donington and Silverstone, and a trip across the Atlantic to Laguna Seca.

Below is the official press release issued by the FIM containing the updated and finalized calendar:

FIM Superbike, Supersport World Championships & FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup

New round on the 2013 calendar

The FIM today issued a press release confirming the news that the Indian round of World Superbikes has been moved to November 17th, as we reported earlier today. Below is the official press release:

FIM Superbike, Supersport World Championships & FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup

2013 Provisional calendar, updated 15 January (Change in bold)

The World Superbike race in India has been moved from the 10 March to the 17 November due to an insufficient period of time to properly finalise the training of the marshals and medical staff around the racetrack. FIM representatives will be at the Indian track on 19, 20 and 21 this January, in order to carry out the final racetrack homologation and provide the relevant seminars about the different aspects involved in the sporting organisation of the event.

FIM Superbike, Supersport World Championships & FIM Superstock 1000cc Cup

New round on the 2013 calendar

A new round will be included in the FIM Superbike & Supersport World Championships. It will be held on the circuit of Intercity Istanbul Park near Istanbul (Turkey) on September 15, 2013. The 2013 updated calendar is the following:

Press releases from the World Superbike and World Supersport teams after the rain-stricken races at Monza:

(Updated below)

Pirelli brought their tyres to Monza, knowing rain was a possibility. The tyres they brought were the best they could make with the science the racing economy can fund. Wet weather tyres need to displace water and allow bikes to grip in the wet and get their power down while allowing them to brake. What they are not designed to do is sustained stretches of immense speed on abrasive dry tarmac. If you watch their video, you get some idea of the punishment Monza gives rubber.

Monza is a unique track and one that punishes tyres in unique ways, as was seen when multiple wet tyres on different bikes were delaminated during Superpole. This wasn't the characteristics of one bike, or an overzealous rider that couldn't handle the tyres, this was a feature of the track and the weather clashing. Three 300kmh sections of track require one sort of tyre and standing water requires another. When riders were telling us that wet tyres would only last three laps on a Superbike, it was clear that if the rain came down, it would be impossible to race.

Riders lined up for a World Superbike race. After two warm up laps ahead of a 17-lap race, most of the riders on the starting grid were gesticulating to officials and the start was delayed as black clouds loomed in the distance.