Friday highlights – WorldSBK - After being eighth in FP1, Bautista set his fastest time in the afternoon session as he finished ahead of Razgatlioglu and Rea.
- Bautista was able to do 15 laps in the 1’34 bracket, including eight of his final ten laps under the 1’34.5 mark (the other two laps were cancelled).
“It was a difficult start for me this morning because, with the cooler conditions, I didn’t have a really good feeling with the bike. Basically, our target was just to get the feeling I had in the winter test here because that time the feeling was fantastic. In the morning, it didn’t feel the same. It’s true that we changed the bike a little bit compared to the test so for the afternoon we just came back to the bike at the test. Suddenly, I felt much better. We compared the new SCX tyres that Pirelli brought here, and we found some positive things in each one but it’s a difficult to say a choice for the race because we didn’t do a lot of kilometres on the tyre and the standard SCX we know very well how it drops or not. We need more information about these two tyres but the first day has been positive.”
P2 – Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) 1’34.115
- Razgatlioglu finished second only 0.107s behind Bautista.
- He was consistently faster than his rivals in the opening half of the lap but was losing time to Bautista in the final sector.
“We’re starting good our weekend. After Estoril, we tried some new parts and I have a good feeling. This afternoon, we tried the two new Pirelli tyres. In FP2, we tried a new one and the last 15 minutes I tried the other one. Now, we’ll check which one is better for the race. I’m very close to Bautista lap time, but my lap time was cancelled because I touched the green part. Anyway, we are fast and tomorrow we’ll try a new set up for the race and I hope we’ll have a good feeling. We’re ready to race and it looks we’ll be fighting again with Bautista and Rea.”
P3 – Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1’34.134
- Rea was third but finished only 0.126s behind Bautista and just 0.019s behind Razgatlioglu.
- Rea accumulated 20 laps in the 1’34 bracket, more than anyone else managed throughout the afternoon session.
“I felt good with my bike. Just after some laps we understood where we need to improve. We had to understand the circuit as it’s been a while since we’ve been here. It was just getting up to speed, there are some key areas where we need to improve. We focused a lot on trying to understand the tyre choice because we have some new options for rear tyres. So, when I putted an option, I tried to do a longer run to understand the drop and the behavior of the tyre. We have some good information now for tomorrow.”
P4 – Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’34.184
- Rinaldi has been inside the top five all day before finishing in fourth on the combined times.
” I’m happy about today. We started with the base of Estoril and the feeling is better. We improve a little bit what we have. We tried the new Pirelli tyre. They work great but at the moment we don’t know if we’ll use them. For sure, Toprak, Jonny and Alvaro are very strong but at the moment we are there. We are four in one tenth. Tomorrow we will work a bit more because I think we need a bit more to fight for the win.”
P5 – Philipp Oettl (Team Goeleven) 1’34.498
- Oettl (Team Goeleven) managed fifth on his return after his right collarbone fracture and was top Independent Rider at the end of day one.
“I feel surprisingly well, the shoulder works good. I also feel good with the bike. I’m really happy that I have a good feeling with it, way better than I expected it. After an injury, it’s always difficult to come back and find immediately the feeling with the bike and Misano is a challenging track. I’m looking forward to tomorrow even if we still have some work to do. I want to continue riding like today. I don’t think about the position too much, we just want to improve race by race and if we can do another top ten this weekend, it would be great.”
P6 – Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) 1’34.605
- Gerloff was sixth at the end of day one as he’s still recovering from his injury at in Estoril.
” After the last two weeks of not doing anything, I feel it healed up pretty well and it’s what my doctor says too. The pace is good but I had some difficulties doing just one fast lap. I see the pace of the top three guys is really impressive so we’re a little bit after that. The test that we had here earlier this year helped. We have the same bike but the track temperature is a bit higher, so we had to change a few things so we’re just working through it. Talking about my goals, I know it’s going to be harder in the next couple of days, so we have to keep that in mind. But it’s the same as always, I want a good Superpole and then a good first couple of laps and be close to the front group and try to go after them.”
To note:
Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) was the first Honda rider in eighth place whilst Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was the leading BMW rider in ninth.
Italian riders Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) were 10th and 12th respectively. Locatelli didn’t improve on his morning time in the afternoon when the temperatures came up, finishing in tenth overall, the only rider to not improve in the second session.
1. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’34.008s
2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +0.107s
3. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.126s
4. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.176s
5. Philipp Oettl (Team Goeleven) +0.490s
6. Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +0.597s
