Chaz Davies sets pace at Laguna Seca

The British Ducati rider was consistent in three free practices in the United States and his time in the third was the day's quickest.

Davies, sixth in the riders' standings, set a time of one minute 23.293 seconds to narrowly top the third session ahead of Sylvain Guintoli (+0.021secs).

For Guintoli (Aprilia), his time was enough to be second fastest, while team-mate Marco Melandri was behind him.

Championship leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) slipped to fourth for the day, but he was within 0.200secs of Davies.

Voltcom Crescent Suzuki duo Alex Lowes and Eugene Laverty were fifth and sixth fastest respectively, while Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam, Davide Giugliano and Toni Elias made up the top 10.

Elias was briefly sidelined after a crash which brought out the red flags.