2023-04-21 16:55:45
Perfect Friday for Álvaro Bautista at the Assen TT Circuit. The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider has been relentless throughout the first two free practice sessions of the round in the Netherlands, and after leading the morning FP1 with a best time of 1’34.592, the man from Talavera lowered his mark to 1’34.316 in FP2 to close the day at the top of the combined standings.
In addition to setting the fastest lap, the reigning world champion has also shown some truly relentless pace throughout FP2 in the afternoon, accumulating a large number of turns in 1’34 medium They have undoubtedly put all their rivals on alert, especially the Kawasaki duo, always effective in Assen.
This has been confirmed Alex Lowesresponsible for setting the second best time on Friday in FP2 today with a lap that left him 231 thousandths behind Bautista, 26 thousandths ahead of his teammate and 17-time winner in Assen, Jonathan Reawhich could not advance beyond the third position.
Behind the Kawasaki Racing Team couple we find two other riders who share a box, specifically the rookies Dominique Aegerter (4th +0.284) and Remy Gardner (5th +0.397) in what has undoubtedly been a great Friday for the GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team; behind them we find the local idol of BMW, Michael Van der Mark (6th +0.595), a driver used to putting in great performances in Assen every year and who we should never rule out for the races this weekend.
Seventh position for the private Ducati of Axel Bassanisix tenths behind Bautista, followed by Andrea Locatelli (8º +0.650), Garrett Gerloff (9th +0.708) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (10th +0.787), who has not been particularly good at this start of the Dutch round of WorldSBK.
FP2 briefly red flagged due to track conditions ????#NLDWorldSBK ???????? pic.twitter.com/pzeGXv25cl
— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) April 21, 2023
The Turkish pilot was precisely one of the unexpected protagonists of FP2; a balloon in the shape of a crocodile ended up in the middle of the track, and Toprak had to correct his trajectory in the middle of the curve, not knowing very well what it was about. Race Direction stopped the session with a red flag to be able to remove the balloon and the action resumed as normal.
Friday has not been particularly positive for the Spanish duo of Team HRC. Iker Lecuona He was the best Honda rider with a 13th position (+0.837), finishing just ahead of his teammate, the Catalan xavi virgin (14th +0.957). In Assen we have also seen the debut of TPR by Viñales Racing, a structure led by Maverick’s father, Ángel Viñales, where his cousin Isaac competeswho today closed the time classification in 25th place, 2.6 seconds behind the best.
Read also: Jorge Lorenzo travels to the Lamborghini headquarters to pick up his latest car
The Superbike bikes will roll again in Assen tomorrow Saturday from 09:00 with a 30-minute FP3. The fight for the Superpole will start at 11:10, and later, At 2:00 p.m., the traffic light will turn off to give the start to Race 1.
FP1 & FP2 WorldSBK Assen Results
#inflatable #crocodile #sneaks #FP2 #Assen #Bautista #strong