Jerez WSBK: Rea leads the way in Friday practice at Jerez
Kawasaki rider Jonathan Rea topped Friday practice for this weekend's Jerez World Superbike round, going a massive four tenths faster than nearest rival Michael Ruben Rinaldi.
Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Rea, who heads to Jerez only a single point behind championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu, was the only rider to get beneath the 100-second mark at the Spanish track, leaving it until the end of the afternoon's second 45-minute session to post his best time of 1m39.671s.
That was a full 0.399s up on Ducati rider Rinaldi, who led the way earlier in the session on a 1m40.070s.
It was Yamaha rider Razgatlioglu that topped the first session in the morning, the Turkish rider posting a 1m40.074s to go a little under a tenth faster than nearest rival Rinaldi and three tenths up on Rea.
Razgatlioglu didn't improve on that time in the afternoon, but was nonetheless third-fastest overall, just four thousandths of a second behind Rinaldi.
Leon Haslam was an encouraging fourth-fastest on the Honda with the third-fastest time in the afternoon, a 1m40.328s, while Scott Redding left it late to move up to fifth aboard the second Ducati on a 1m40.342s.
Next up was Alvaro Bautista, who made it two Hondas in the top six and might have gone even faster without suffering a crash at Turn 11 with six minutes left on the clock in the afternoon.
Rea's Kawasaki teammate Alex Lowes was seventh despite carrying a hand injury from a crash last weekend at Barcelona, impressively going fourth-fastest in the morning session.
Andrea Locatelli was eighth on the second works Yamaha, having suffered a trip through the gravel in FP1, while Michael van der Mark was the best BMW rider in ninth ahead of GRT Yamaha man Garrett Gerloff.
Loris Baz ended his first day of WSBK action since last year's Estoril finale 12th-fastest aboard the Go Eleven Ducati that has been vacated by the injured and soon-to-retire Chaz Davies this weekend.
Just behind the French rider was another injury substitute as Eugene Laverty (absent since July's Assen round) put in the 13th-fastest time aboard the works BMW normally piloted by Tom Sykes.
Marvin Fritz, back for a second outing of the season aboard his FIM Endurance World Championship-spec YART Yamaha, was 19th-fastest, while Kawasaki wildcard Andrea Mantovani was 22nd out of a bumper 24-rider field.
FP1 results - top 10
Cla | # | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 54 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu
|
Yamaha | 1'40.074 | |
2 | 21 |
Michael Ruben Rinaldi
|
Ducati | 1'40.160 | 0.086 |
3 | 1 |
Jonathan Rea
|
Kawasaki | 1'40.411 | 0.337 |
4 | 22 |
Alex Lowes
|
Kawasaki | 1'40.513 | 0.439 |
5 | 91 |
Leon Haslam
|
Honda | 1'40.749 | 0.675 |
6 | 55 |
Andrea Locatelli
|
Yamaha | 1'40.766 | 0.692 |
7 | 60 |
Michael van der Mark
|
BMW | 1'40.773 | 0.699 |
8 | 45 |
Scott Redding
|
Ducati | 1'40.838 | 0.764 |
9 | 31 |
Garrett Gerloff
|
Yamaha | 1'40.929 | 0.855 |
10 | 47 |
Axel Bassani
|
Ducati | 1'40.930 | 0.856 |
View full results |
FP2 results - top 10
Cla | # | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 |
Jonathan Rea
|
Kawasaki | 1'39.671 | |
2 | 21 |
Michael Ruben Rinaldi
|
Ducati | 1'40.070 | 0.399 |
3 | 91 |
Leon Haslam
|
Honda | 1'40.328 | 0.657 |
4 | 45 |
Scott Redding
|
Ducati | 1'40.342 | 0.671 |
5 | 19 |
Alvaro Bautista
|
Honda | 1'40.349 | 0.678 |
6 | 22 |
Alex Lowes
|
Kawasaki | 1'40.352 | 0.681 |
7 | 54 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu
|
Yamaha | 1'40.353 | 0.682 |
8 | 55 |
Andrea Locatelli
|
Yamaha | 1'40.601 | 0.930 |
9 | 31 |
Garrett Gerloff
|
Yamaha | 1'40.745 | 1.074 |
10 | 60 |
Michael van der Mark
|
BMW | 1'40.858 | 1.187 |
View full results |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments