On the other side of the world or in Europe, it is always Nicolò Bulega who speaks loudly. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider prevailed in Friday's free practice at the Barcelona Round, the second round of the 2024 World Superbike season. Three weeks after the inaugural event in Australia, the rookieit restarts from where it finished and, after the tests at Montmelo carried out last week, it confirms itself as the fastest.
Chasing the Ducati rider is Alvaro Bautista, who, after the morning's difficulties which saw him far from the top, manages to climb back up to take second place, 247 thousandths behind his teammate. The reigning world champion thus scores the Aruba double on Friday in Catalan. The duo mocks Toprak Razgatlioglu, who had appeared in excellent form in FP1, but in the afternoon he bows to the Panigale V4R.
BMW is still competitive in Barcelona, because in the combined at the end of the first day of the weekend it is third and fourth with the official drivers. Authors of the one-two in the morning, the Turk and Michael van der Mark remain behind only the two Ducatis, from whom they have a gap ranging from 292 to 338 thousandths.
Jonathan Rea is also starting to make an appearance in Barcelona, taking fourth position at the end of free practice on Friday. The Northern Irishman is adapting to the Yamaha and precedes his teammate Andrea Locatelli, fifth in the combined. If in the first six positions we find only official riders, in seventh place is Andrea Iannone, who astride the Panigale V4R of the Goeleven team is the best of the independents.
The rider from Vasto ends the first day of his second weekend in Superbike with a delay of almost six tenths from the top and is followed closely by Danilo Petrucci, eighth. Excellent Friday for Sam Lowes, who was ninth on the Marc VDS team's Ducati, while Remy Gardner closed the top 10 on the GRT team's Yamaha. The Australian precedes Dominique Aegerter, twelfth, while Garrett Gerloff fits in between the two teammates with the BMW of the Bonovo team. Remaining at BMW, Scott Redding is last, only eighteenth.
You have to scroll down the rankings to 13th position to find the first Kawasaki, which is that of Axel Bassani. The Venetian driver manages to put the wheels of his ZX-10RR ahead of those of the more experienced Alex Lowes, who follows him 24 thousandths behind in 14th place. Michael Ruben Rinaldi was also in difficulty, 15th with the Ducati Motocorsa.
Late night for HRC, whose fastest bike is that of Xavi Vierge, only 16th. Iker Lecuona is 19th behind the aforementioned Redding and Philipp Oettl, 17th. Tito Rabat archived Friday's free practice in 20th position, ahead of Bradley Ray's MotoXRacing-branded Yamaha, 21st. At the rear of the group is the MIE pair formed by Tarran Mackenzie and Adam Norrodin, 22nd and 23rd respectively.
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