Assen WSBK: Bautista leads Friday practice for Ducati

Bautista set a time of 1m34.382s with 10 minutes left on the clock in FP2, outpacing Razgatlioglu’s FP1 benchmark by just 0.082s to end the day the quickest of all.

Razgatlioglu was untouchable in the opening session of the weekend, finishing more than four tenths clear of his nearest competitor, but he couldn’t improve on that laptime in the afternoon and had to settle for second on the combined timesheets.

Rea did deliver a massive improvement between the two sessions on his factory Kawasaki, but his best effort of the day still ended up three tenths shy of Bautista’s time on the Panigale V4 R.

However, Kawasaki’s day was made better by Alex Lowes roughly matching the pace of his six-time championship-winning teammate, the British rider classified a strong fourth with a time of 1m34.772s.

Iker Lecuona made it four different manufacturers in the top five with a 1m34.884s, but the Honda rider’s running was hampered by major crash at Turn 3 in FP2, requiring a trip to the medical centre.

This also brought out the only red flag of the day, but the track was soon cleared to allow the session to resume.

Lecuona himself was able to return later in the session to log some crucial laps, although he couldn’t improve on his previous effort and ended up ninth in FP2 - and fifth overall.

The top independent rider in Friday practice was GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff in sixth, the American edging out the factory Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi by just 0.017s in the general classification.

Bonovo MGM rider Loris Baz again outpaced the factory BMW duo in practice, setting a time of 1m35.320s to end the day eighth-quickest ahead of Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli and the Motocorsa Ducati of Axel Bassani.

Scott Redding finished over three tenths behind Baz in 11th on the works BMW 1000RR, with teammate Michael van der Mark classified further back on his return from injury.

Five-time WSBK race winner Leon Haslam finished 17th and 14th in the two sessions as he replaced the axed Loris Cresson at the Pedercini Kawasaki team.

Assen WSBK - FP2 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'34.382
2	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'34.680	0.298
3	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'34.772	0.390
4	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'34.785	0.403
5	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'34.999	0.617
6	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'35.016	0.634
7	76	Loris Baz	BMW	1'35.320	0.938
8	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'35.471	1.089
9	7	Iker Lecuona	Honda	1'35.495	1.113
10	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	1'35.568	1.186
View full results

Assen WSBK - FP1 results:

Cla	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'34.466
2	Iker Lecuona	Honda	1'34.884	0.418
3	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	1'35.246	0.780
4	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'35.271	0.805
5	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'35.295	0.829
6	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'35.384	0.918
7	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'35.799	1.333
8	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'35.841	1.375
9	Scott Redding	BMW	1'35.860	1.394
10	Axel Bassani	Ducati	1'36.082	1.616
View full results