Happy birthday Toprak! It couldn’t have started better than this on the Argentine Saturday morning of the Yamaha rider. Leader of the world championship and on Friday, the Turkish also signs the third and final free practice session, to confirm the excessive power and establish the hierarchies of the San Juan round. Razgatlioglu lowers yesterday’s time again, beating the track record and imposes himself as today’s big favorite.
Like yesterday, also in the Argentine morning Scott Redding gets behind the Turkish. The Ducati rider, protagonist of a crash at Turn 13 without consequences in the early stages of the session, manages to get back on track and finishes with the second time, only behind the unstoppable Toprak. However, the gap is already important: the world leader inflicts four tenths of a second to the second driver, while Jonathan Rea queues up once again and is third, more than half a second behind his direct rival in the standings.
The Kawasaki rider appears less incisive in this last free practice session and seems unable to undermine Razgatlioglu’s hegemony, at least in these three sessions. At the end of 14 laps (the same as the Yamaha rider), Rea pays 525 thousandths and is behind the group of three fighting for the title. Garrett Gerloff confirms the good sensations of the weekend and in the third session he moves to fourth position having signed the exact same time as Jonathan Rea.
“First of the others” is Michael Ruben Rinaldi, fifth and even more distant from the summit. The rider from Romagna is delayed by eight tenths of a second, but can still be satisfied, as he is on his first outing as an official driver at El Villicum. The first driver to go beyond the second late is Alex Lowes, sixth. The Kawasaki rider is still fighting with a hand not fully recovered and, after claiming he is still at 80% of form, he is doing what he can.
The Brit precedes his compatriot Leon Haslam, who closes the last free practice session before qualifying in seventh position. The Honda rider continues to show signs of improvement on the bike and manages to take it to the top 10, ahead of Axel Bassani’s Ducati, ninth with the Motocorsa team’s Panigale. Michael van der Mark also grabs a place in the top ten, jumping to ninth with the BMW, a growing result if you think about how the weekend started. Andrea Locatelli closes the top 10, celebrating his birthday together with his teammate with 1.3 seconds from the top.
Session to forget for Chaz Davies, who is forced to stop his Panigale V4R of the Go Eleven team on the track due to an engine problem. The Welshman does not go beyond the 18th time. A complicated morning also for Alvaro Bautista, who with the other Honda closes 12th position, while Samuele Cavalieri is 14th with the Ducati of the Barni team.
