Superbike / Lowes fastest in free practice at Phillip Island. Bulega 2nd | FP

Lowes ahead of everyone

The first two sessions took place during the Italian night free practice for the Australian Round, an event that officially opens the 2024 Superbike season on the Phillip Island circuit. Between unexpected results and disappointments, the best overall time was recorded by Alex Loweswinner here in 2020. The British rider from Kawasaki actually finished in 1:29.042 in PL2, sending a message to the competition.

The Italians are doing well

Behind Lowes a 'hat-trick' of Italian pilots led by Nicolò Bulega. The rookie, last year's Supersport champion and today riding the official Ducati, actually finished in second position just 59 thousandths behind Lowes, followed by his compatriots Locatelli and Petrucci and with the top-5 completed by Michael van der Mark. Analyzing the top 10, there are other 'blues' such as the returning Andrea Iannone, 7th and in turn ahead of Rinaldi.

The experts are further behind

However, the most awaited pilots are in greater difficulty: only 10th Toprak Razgatlioglumaking his debut with BMW, while the world champion Alvaro Bautista he didn't go beyond the 12th positionwith the Spaniard still dealing with the injury suffered at the end of 2023. From a physical point of view, as admitted by the person concerned in a recent interview, also Jonathan Rea he had to struggle during free practice, obtaining the 16th place behind Axel Bassani's second Kawasaki. The appointment is now with the Superpole, scheduled for tomorrow at 03:00 Italian time on Sky Sport MotoGP and delayed at 13:30 or 16:00.

2024 Australian Round – Combined Free Practice Results (Top-10)