2023-05-05 17:23:17
The weekend starts very well for Ducati in the Catalan round of WorldSBK; Michael Rinaldi and Alvaro Bautista The two Superbike free practice sessions held on a dry and hot Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya took place this Friday, and if in the morning it was the Italian who commanded the classification, in the afternoon it was Bautista who took the helm despite the fact that the grip of the asphalt had decreased due to the increase in temperatures.
In fact, the defending WorldSBK champion was the only one in the top 9 who managed to lower his FP1 time in the afternoon; Bautista signed a 1’41.486 in the final stretch of FP2, enough to beat his boxing neighbor by 147 thousandths. And as well as setting the fastest fastest lap, the Spaniard also left his mark in terms of pace with a long 16-lap run without changing tyres, consistently setting 42-low times.
Your partner Michael Rinaldi started the day with speed, clocking a 1’41.633 that placed the member of Aruba.it Racing – Ducati at the top of the timing table, finally closing the day in second position less than two tenths behind Bautista, a top 3 that completed Jonathan Rea.
The Northern Irishman enjoys some novelties in terms of chassis in Montmeló to gain poise in the front end of his Kawasaki, In addition to enjoying 250 rpm. more than maximum engine speed thanks to the change of ‘tokens’ executed by his factory before starting the Catalunya round. The Northern Irishman set a 1’41.652 in the morning session that he could not improve on in the afternoon, closing the door of his box with the third best time of the day, 166 thousandths behind Álvaro Bautista.
The third in discord within the trio of aces, Soil Razgatlioglu (4th), also finished relatively close to the time of his rival from Talavera, leaving 233 thousandths of a second, followed by the one who was a substitute for Marc Márquez in the last round in Jerez, Iker Lecuonawho also started this round of Catalunya with speed after consolidating himself in fifth position, half a second behind Bautista.
Let’s go riding with @19Bautista! ✊ #WorldSBK | #CatalanWorldSBK pic.twitter.com/Il3SX5pWYz
— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) May 5, 2023
The top 10 of the combined in this first day of free practice have been completed Andrea Locatelli (6º +0.593), Dominique Aegerter (7º +0.598), xavi virgin (8º +0.609), Alex Lowes (9th +0.743) and the North American of the Bonovo Action BMW, Garrett Gerloff (10th +0.749), consolidated as the best M 1000 RR on Friday in Montmeló.
The Superbike riders will resume action from Saturday at 09:00 in the morning for FP3. The Superpole will start at 11:10 and after, At 2:00 p.m., Race 1 de Catalunya will start.
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Results FP1 & FP2 WorldSBK Catalunya
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