Barcelona WSBK: Lecuona tops Friday practice for Honda

Less than a fortnight after Honda’s least competitive showing of the year at Magny-Cours, Lecuona showed signs of a return to form for the Japanese manufacturer by topping the times across the opening two practice sessions of the weekend.

Most of the day’s fastest times were set in the morning session, with Lecuona himself setting his chart-setting top time towards the end of FP1. The Spaniard rider lapped his home track in 1m41.396s, ending the day more than half a second clear of Rinaldi’s Ducati and the Yamaha of reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Points leader Alvaro Bautista was quickest in the afternoon session, but his time was only good enough for fourth in the overall timesheets - six tenths down on Lecuona’s FP1 benchmark.

Kawasaki star Jonathan Rea made a minor improvement between the two sessions to take fifth, with Andrea Locatelli finishing right behind him on the second of the two works Yamahas.

Xavi Vierge rounded off a strong showing for Honda in seventh, beating the factory Kawasaki of Alex Lowes by a tenth of a second.

Axel Bassani was once again the top independent rider in the field on the Motocorsa Ducati in ninth, half a second down on the factory bike of Rinaldi. In the week up to Barcelona, it was announced that Rinaldi will remain with the works Ducati team next year, despite both Bassani and Danilo Petrucci being linked to his seat.

The top 10 was completed by BMW’s Scott Redding, who narrowly beat the GRT Yamaha of Garrett Gerloff and the Bonovo BMW of Eugene Laverty.

Gerloff will move to the Bonovo satellite team next year to replace Laverty, who will retire from racing to take a management role with the squad.

Redding’s teammate Michael van der Mark suffered a technical problem on his BMW that restricted him to just two laps in FP1. He returned later in the afternoon, ending up 19th quickest with a time of 1m44.925s.

Former MotoGP rider Hafizh Syahrin took no part in Friday practice due to a respiratory tract infection and his medical condition will be reviewed on Saturday morning.

Barcelona WSBK - FP1 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	7	Iker Lecuona	Honda	1'41.396
2	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'41.931	0.535
3	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'41.991	0.595
4	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'42.042	0.646
5	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'42.113	0.717
6	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'42.143	0.747
7	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'42.358	0.962
8	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'42.683	1.287
9	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	1'42.688	1.292
10	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	1'42.744	1.348
11	45	Scott Redding	BMW	1'42.883	1.487
12	5	Philipp Oettli	Ducati	1'43.018	1.622
13	76	Loris Baz	BMW	1'43.043	1.647
14	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	1'43.473	2.077
15	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	1'43.475	2.079
16	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki	1'43.594	2.198
17	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	1'43.631	2.235
18	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	1'43.870	2.474
19	99	Oscar Gutierrez	Kawasaki	1'43.892	2.496
20	2	Roberto Tamburini	Yamaha	1'44.214	2.818
21	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	1'44.430	3.034
22	29	Luca Bernardi	Ducati	1'44.658	3.262
23	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	1'44.925	3.529
	35	Hafizh Syahrin	Honda
View full results

Barcelona WSBK - FP2 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'42.018
2	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'42.058	0.040
3	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'42.085	0.067
4	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'42.121	0.103
5	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	1'42.221	0.203
6	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'42.318	0.300
7	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	1'42.477	0.459
8	45	Scott Redding	BMW	1'42.648	0.630
9	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	1'42.737	0.719
10	5	Philipp Oettli	Ducati	1'42.823	0.805
11	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	1'42.828	0.810
12	7	Iker Lecuona	Honda	1'42.844	0.826
13	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'42.904	0.886
14	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'42.937	0.919
15	76	Loris Baz	BMW	1'43.048	1.030
16	29	Luca Bernardi	Ducati	1'43.230	1.212
17	2	Roberto Tamburini	Yamaha	1'43.595	1.577
18	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	1'43.599	1.581
19	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	1'43.613	1.595
20	99	Oscar Gutierrez	Kawasaki	1'43.924	1.906
21	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	1'44.179	2.161
22	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	1'44.281	2.263
23	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki	1'44.293	2.275
24	35	Hafizh Syahrin	Honda
View full results