The warm and sunny Phillip Island welcomed the Superbike for the first day of the final weekend of the season. The weekend’s weather is uncertain, but the first two free practice sessions on Friday were held in the dry, which was ideal conditions for the drivers. On Day 1 of the Phillip Island round, Jonathan Rea won the day, dominating the entire day with both free practice sessions leading the timesheets.
The weekend of the Northern Irishman seems to have started on the right foot, as he is looking for his first victory on the Australian track after the long fast that has been going on since May, when he took the win in Race 2 at Estoril. The Kawasaki rider clocked a 1’31”127 setting the best reference of the day, and the ZX-10RR is confirmed to be in excellent shape on the Australian track also with Alex Lowes. The Briton ends Friday’s free practice in third position, just under three tenths behind his teammate.
Alvaro Bautista fits between the two Kawasakis. The Spaniard arrives at Phillip Island fresh from his title but seems far from satiated: second 105 thousandths behind Rea, the Aruba rider will try to repeat the extraordinary result of 2019, when he scored a stratospheric hat-trick on his Superbike debut. The reigning champion is also aiming to bring the constructors’ title to Ducati this weekend, which would thus conclude a perfect season. Michael Ruben Rinaldi will also want to make his contribution, but at the moment he closes Friday in tenth position, just over a second away from the leader.
More delayed than the two direct rivals is Toprak Razgatlioglu, who on the opening day of the round is fourth and pays well over five tenths from Rea, holder of the best time on Friday. Not a great start to the weekend for the Turkish rider, who struggled with grip on the track where he had immediately found victory on his debut with the Yamaha. Behind him is teammate Andrea Locatelli, fifth with the other factory R1 just under six tenths from the lead.
Incredible debut of Tetsuta Nagashima, called to replace the injured Iker Lecuona and immediately fast. The Japanese flies to Phillip Island on Friday and with sixth position in the combined standings he is the first of the Honda riders. The winged manufacturer’s tester is the author of a great debut in Superbike and precedes even the more experienced Philipp Oettl, seventh with the Goeleven team Ducati. The German is, surprisingly, the first of the independent riders on Day 1 at Phillip Island. Behind him we find Garrett Gerloff, eighth with the Yamaha of the GRT team.
BMW’s weekend starts uphill, with Scott Redding as the first representative and ninth in the combined times standings. The Briton is the first to go more than a second off the lead, while his teammate Michael van der Mark is 12th. Between the two are the aforementioned Rinaldi and Axel Bassani, 11th at his debut on the Australian track.
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