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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

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.

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FP1 results - top 10

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'40.074
2 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'40.160 0.086
3 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'40.411 0.337
4 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'40.513 0.439
5 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 1'40.749 0.675
6 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'40.766 0.692
7 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
BMW 1'40.773 0.699
8 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 1'40.838 0.764
9 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'40.929 0.855
10 47 Italy Axel Bassani
Ducati 1'40.930 0.856

FP2 results - top 10

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 1'39.671
2 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 1'40.070 0.399
3 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 1'40.328 0.657
4 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 1'40.342 0.671
5 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 1'40.349 0.678
6 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki 1'40.352 0.681
7 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha 1'40.353 0.682
8 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 1'40.601 0.930
9 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 1'40.745 1.074
10 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
BMW 1'40.858 1.187

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