ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Toni Elias emerged from the Friday fray as the fastest man in the MotoAmerica EBC Brakes Superbike class at Road America, but that was before his time was disallowed.

His fastest lap was disallowed in the final session for the loss of custody of the bike at the end of session. That miscue by the current Superbike Championship points leader dropped him to third in the combined times and allowed Cameron Beaubier to move to the top in the Dunlop Championship at Road America.

“This morning, first practice, I was a little slow to get up to speed and the wind was kind of affecting everyone, blowing us around,” Beaubier said. “That was something to get used to. All in all, it wasn’t too bad and we led the first session by a little bit. Second practice, made a couple of changes chassis-wise and struggled a little bit with a couple of things that we’re going to work on for tomorrow.

“I noticed Toni (Elias) was a chunk faster than us, like three or four tenths, so definitely we have to do our homework tonight and come out swinging tomorrow. All in all, felt like I wasn’t piecing the track together like I was last year. My times were slower than what they were last year on Friday. I wasn’t super comfortable, but I’m still happy to be up with those guys, looking at the positives. I’m curious to see what the weather is going to be like tomorrow. We will see what happens, but no matter what we will be ready to go.”

Elias had ended up on top via his 2:12.444 lap on Friday afternoon, the Spaniard besting Beaubier by .421 of a second. Beaubier, meanwhile, had put his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1 in second, leading his teammate Garrett Gerloff by .308 of a second. But that was before Elias was penalized.

The Spaniard encountered electrical issues and made his way back down toward turn five on an ill-running motorcycle. He then left the track and rode the bike back to the paddock. At that point, he was in violation of the rules and his lap times from the session were disallowed. Elias, with his 2:13.603 from the morning session, was dropped to third fastest on the day.

“Today went pretty well,” Elias said, prior to learning of his penalty. “The bike is pretty different than last year. We move in the same direction as last year to see if all the pumping problems from last year can come back for this race. The problems of pumping came back when we did the same moves as last year so it’s good to know and not on Sunday. We found out on Friday so for this afternoon we moved in another direction so it works so well because in five or six laps we are running in 12s (2:12 lap times) very consistent and very comfortable.

“We need to improve if we want to continue like this because the other rivals will improve too for tomorrow. I’m happy. We had an electrical problem because we did just six or seven laps. The first time I could come back to the pit, but the second time I couldn’t come back to the pit. The bike stopped, I switched the bike on and then I had to take the bike to the track but only with 2000 rpm. I hear that you cannot do that, so what do I have to do? I have to stop the bike and it wasn’t working so being in the middle of the way was not okay. What I did in VIR was not okay. Today I brought the bike to the pit and I hope everything will be fine.”

Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz ended the day fourth fastest, one spot better than Yoshimura Suzuki’s Josh Herrin.

M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Bobby Fong and Sean Dylan Kelly gave the team a one-two finish in the Supersport provisional qualifying session on Friday afternoon. Fong was best, turning in a 2:19.814 on his final lap to snatch provisional pole from Kelly, the Floridian ending up .575 of a second behind.

The Stock 1000 provisional pole went to Geoff May, the veteran racer besting defending class champion Andrew Lee. Weir Everywhere Racing BMW’s Travis Wyman rounds out the provisional front row going into tomorrow’s final qualifying.

Rocco Landers put a half a second between himself and his closest rival Dallas Daniels in advance of Saturday’s final qualifying session for the Liqui Moly Junior Cup class. The rest of the class finds itself in a hole, with Kevin Olmedo third, but 1.7 seconds behind Landers, who has won three of the first four races so far in 2019.

Michael Barnes led Kris Turner to lead the only Twins Cup practice session of the day.

TORONTO -- The NBA correctly anticipated that television ratings would dip for Game 1 of the NBA Finals, for two very important reasons.

There's no LeBron James.

And Canadian numbers don't count.

ESPN said Friday that the Game 1 of the Toronto-Golden State series drew a 10.1 overnight rating, the lowest for Game 1 of a title series in a decade -- though all the numbers come with a serious catch. Canadian viewership does not count toward the metered-market ratings formula used in the U.S., and it was the most-watched NBA game in Canada's history.

"Put aside perception, there is the actuality of the ratings," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday. "Of course, I pay a lot of attention to those. I also pay a lot of attention to the numbers in Canada, where we set an all-time record for viewership. In the U.S., I recognize it's a changing television marketplace. We knew we would be down a bit by virtue of both not having two U.S. markets and we've come off eight years of having LeBron James in the finals."

Meanwhile, the first finals game for a Canadian team was a smash north of the border.

It was the most-watched NBA game on Sportsnet, reaching 7.4 million Canadians -- basically 20 percent of the nation's population. The average size of the Canadian audience, Sportsnet said, was 3.3 million viewers and peaked in the final minutes of the game with 4.1 million Canadians tuning in to see the finish.

Ratings throughout the playoffs have been down in the NBA, with James and the Los Angeles Lakers not making the playoffs surely a major factor.

"I'm not overly concerned," Silver said about the current numbers. "But I'm certainly paying attention to it."

The Colorado Rockies are sending left-hander Kyle Freeland to Triple-A Albuquerque to work on his mechanics after a rough start to the season.

Freeland is 2-6 with a 7.13 ERA and nowhere near the form he displayed a season ago, when he finished fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting. He currently leads the NL in home runs given up (16) and earned runs (47).

A year ago, the left-hander went 17-7 with a 2.85 ERA and 173 strikeouts.

The 26-year-old Freeland said it "stinks'' that he must return to the minors, but welcomed the chance to work on aspects of his game out of the big-league spotlight.

He said he's not sure how many starts it might take to turn things around. In other moves, the Rockies reinstated lefty Chris Rusin (strained back) from the 10-day injured list, recalled righty Jesus Tinoco from Albuquerque and optioned outfielder Yonathan Daza to Triple-A.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was put on the 10-day injured list with a strained right thumb tendon.

The 36-year-old, a nine-time All-Star, got hurt during Saturday's game against Atlanta and tried to play through the injury.

St. Louis announced the roster move Friday and said it was retroactive to Wednesday.

Matt Wieters will get most of the playing time while Molina is sidelined. St. Louis selected the contract of Andrew Knizner from Triple-A Memphis.

Molina is batting .265 with four home runs and 33 RBIs and started 49 of the Cardinals' first 53 games.

The 24-year-old Knizner was batting .286 with five home runs and 17 RBIs at Memphis.

Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, detailing the events that led to his fractured rib in a nearly five minute video posted Friday, said he heard a "crack" when a masseuse pressed on his right side.

"I was getting a massage on this area on the ribs [on his right side] and I heard a crack when my masseuse pressed on this area over here on my ribs," Correa said in the video, which was posted to his fiancee's YouTube channel. "I looked and I was [like], 'What was that?'

"Immediately after, my side started hurting when I was breathing, when I was walking. At that point I figured something was not right, so I obviously called the Astros to let them know."

Correa, the 2015 AL Rookie of the Year who is hitting .295 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs this season, had an MRI and is expected to miss four to six weeks.

"I had a scheduled massage like I do every single morning when I'm at home, taking care of my body," Correa said. "... Unfortunately, it was not like every other day."

Both Correa and his fiancee, Daniella Rodriguez, wanted to detail what happened and thank fans for their concern. During the video, Correa lifted his shirt to show there was no bruising on the area where the rib is fractured.

"There's no bruises like I fell on something or I got hit," Correa said.

Rodriguez said she heard the masseuse gasp following the audible crack of the rib.

"We're going to stay positive and focus on the rehab now and focus on everything we can do to get back on the field and help the team perform," Correa said. "... I can't wait to be back on the field."

The Astros also are without All-Stars Jose Altuve, who recently felt "fatigue and soreness" in his right leg, and George Springer (hamstring). Utility infielder Aledmys Diaz, catcher Max Stassi and right-hander Collin McHugh are also on the injured list.

The Astros lead the American League West at 37-20 entering Friday's games.

World number nine Elina Svitolina, who has won 13 singles titles on the WTA Tour, has been writing columns for the BBC Sport website during the French Open.

The 24-year-old Ukrainian lost 6-3 6-3 to 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza in the third round at Roland Garros on Friday.

In her final column, she talks about her concerns a knee injury may disrupt the grass-court season, what went wrong against Spain's Muguruza, how living in London has led to British habits and paying 12,000 euros (£10,500) for a young Ukrainian player to have surgery on a serious injury.

The hours after being knocked out of a Grand Slam are not the moments to make rash decisions.

But I've been managing a knee injury for a while and against Garbine it felt the same.

So maybe I will need an MRI scan on my knee next week and see what is the best option going into the grass-court season.

Of course there is a concern I might not play on the grass at all if a scan shows something really serious.

But, feeling how I feel now, I think I will have enough time to recover for Wimbledon.

Against Garbine it was very tough to keep focus and concentration - maybe it was the lack of matches at the highest level over the past two or three months.

Before Roland Garros I had only played two matches - losing in Madrid and Rome - since the Miami Open in March.

The problem didn't get any worse in the match against Garbine though, so that is good.

Grass is tricky because you have to be ready for movements which could maybe damage the knee more.

It has not been easy for the past two months. I need to see where I am now and take my time.

I have to speak with my team and speak with doctors about when I should start playing on the grass.

'I was lost on court'

It is tough to say if Garbine is now the favourite to win Roland Garros but she definitely can play well here - obviously she won here three years ago.

It wasn't an amazing match but she took her chances and served well when she had to.

I made too many unforced errors and too many poor decisions.

Normally my game is about getting balls back and not making many unforced errors. Normally I'm dictating the point.

But I was a bit lost on court. I didn't feel so good with the decisions I made.

I hadn't played since Sunday - when I beat Venus Williams - because my next opponent Kateryna Kozlova pulled out of our match on Wednesday with illness.

It's tough to say if losing serve five times in the first set and only landing 37% of first serves was down to not playing for so long.

She returned well and I was not concentrating on what I had to do.

I have to go back and analyse and see what I did wrong and move forward.

There is no time to be sad. You have to be ready for the next tournament.

I have to be mentally strong. This is a big part of tennis, getting through these moments.

'Now I drink tea like the British'

As a top-10 player, I have the privilege of being allowed to practise at Wimbledon early so - injury permitting - I can start playing on the grass in plenty of time.

At the moment I am scheduled to play Birmingham and Eastbourne before Wimbledon, but it depends on my health.

I used to live in London and still have an apartment there so I enjoy going back.

I love the city and that will be my base for the grass-court season.

I love the parks, the small cafes, the nice people and the atmosphere. I enjoy simply walking around and spending time there.

My favourite place is Chelsea, by the harbour, that's really nice.

And I've actually started drinking English tea - with milk. In Ukraine we don't put milk in tea, we only have green tea.

So that's the most British thing I've learned!

'I didn't hesitate to help'

Two weeks ago I heard a 16-year-old Ukrainian player called Daria Lopatetska got injured at a 25k event in Rome and her parents couldn't afford to pay 12,000 euros (£10,500) for her knee surgery.

As soon as I saw the news, I didn't hesitate before calling them and offering to pay.

It was important for me to react straight away.

I was sad when I heard because it is a very young age to go through bad injuries. It can damage your future.

I think it is important to help the young generation of Ukrainian players because we can't afford to lose any future stars.

She was happy that I could help and her parents were very thankful.

It is important to help people when you can and I hope she recovers soon because she is one of Ukraine's rising stars.

Elina Svitolina was talking to BBC Sport's Jonathan Jurejko at Roland Garros.