Several weeks had passed since the last action on the track of the Superbike World Championship, but the wait was worth it, because Friday’s free practice for the Misano round had already given us a spectacle. Dominating the first day of the fourth round of the season is Toprak Razgatlioglu, who confirms himself as Alvaro Bautista’s first opponent. The two, separated in the championship by just 7 points, are separated today by just over four and a half tenths.
The 1’33”448 set in the morning session was enough for the BMW driver to secure the best time of the day. In fact, no one managed to lower this benchmark, despite a crash at Turn 16 during the second round. This prevented him from going beyond the fifth fastest time, completing only 6 laps.
The direct fight for the championship also takes place on the edge of thousandths, and this is precisely how Razgatlioglu and Bautista resume fighting: the reigning world champion does not go beyond the sixth fastest time in the morning session and pays a good eight tenths of a second from the Turk. However, the Ducati Spaniard recovers in the afternoon session, where he improves his reference by four tenths and climbs into second position, thus earning the third fastest time of the day, with a gap of 465 thousandths from Razgaltioglu.
“The third wheel” comes between the two title contenders: Nicolò Bulega, who is third in the championship, appears in great shape in his home round and his times improve by half a second in the two sessions. Third in the morning, he jumped to the top of the timesheets in the afternoon session, clocking a 1’33”511 which allowed him to move into second position between the leader Razgatlioglu and his teammate in the combined.
On the Ducati side, we find in the top 5 one of the most anticipated riders and at the center of attention: Andrea Iannone. The GoEleven rider, fifth in FP1 and fourth in the second round, enters Saturday qualifying with the fifth time in the combined and is the best of the independent drivers. Outside the top 10, however, was Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who did not go beyond the 11th time on the Motocorsa team’s Ducati. The other two Italians on the Panigale V4R are further behind: Danilo Petrucci, returning after the very bad injury in training, is only 15th with the Barni team’s four-cylinder. Immediately behind we find Michele Pirro, present as a wild card at Misano with the Aruba.it Racing-designed Ducati – Ducati is 16th at the end of Friday, after a harmless crash at the Carro in FP2.
An excellent start to the weekend for Alex Lowes, who took to the track in the morning in Romagna fresh from his renewal with Kawasaki. The Briton, author of two victories this year, is taking the ZX-10RR up the standings by taking second position in the morning session. Lowes still pays half a second from Razgatlioglu, author of a stratospheric time in FP1. Only seventh in the second session, the Kawasaki rider ended Friday with the sixth fastest time in the combined.
The first of the Yamahas in the standings is that of Remy Gardner, who takes fourth place in the combined thanks to the great performance in the afternoon session which allows him to go from ninth place in the morning to third place in FP2. Behind him is an excellent Iker Lecuona, who brings Honda into the top 10 and closes Friday’s free practice with the seventh fastest time. Eighth position for the other official Kawasaki: Axel Bassani is eighth, while Sam Lowes and Dominique Aegerter close the top ten group in ninth and tenth position respectively.
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