Barcelona WSBK: Razgatlioglu edges title rival Rea in practice

Rea remained at the head of the timesheets for much of the day across the two sessions, laying the early benchmark with a 1m42.605s before improving to 1m42.419s to end FP1 quickest of all.

That time remained unbeaten until 25 minutes into  second practice in the afternoon, when Razgatlioglu posted a 1m42.369s to dislodge Rea from the top spot on the combined timesheets.

The Kawasaki star chose not to set a flying lap on his final run, returning on track only to complete an installation lap, which meant the time Razgatlioglu set previously was good enough to keep the Yamaha rider on top.

Ducati's Michael Ruben Rinaldi was Razgatlioglu’s closest rival in FP2, but ended the third overall behind Rea with a fastest time of 1m42.586s.

Tom Sykes made it four different manufacturers in the top four on the factory BMW, ending up 0.239s off the pace with a time of 1m42.608s in FP1. However, the 2013 champion could complete no more than four laps in the afternoon after suffering an early crash at Turn 5.

Andrea Locatelli was fifth on the second of the factory Yamahas, just 0.007s down on Sykes, but he too fell off his bike with eight minutes to go at the final corner.

Alex Lowes was next up on the Kawasaki in sixth, while the time Leon Haslam set on the factory Honda in the morning was good enough for seventh in the combined order.

Michael van der Mark finished eighth for BMW with a time of 1m42.863s, while the top 10 was completed by Scott Redding on the works Ducati and his 2022 replacement Alvaro Bautista (Honda).

Redding had a difficult opening session on Friday as he finished nearly a second off the pace in 13th, but he gained nearly half a second in FP2 to finish sixth in the individual timesheets and ninth overall.

Bautista, meanwhile, was one of the several riders to crash in FP2 in the afternoon, suffering a major fall heading into the final turn on the Honda in the dying minutes of the session.

GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff failed to break the 1m43s barrier and ended up ninth in both sessions, missing out a spot in the overall top 10 by a whisker. 

Another leading independent rider Chaz Davies finished 11th fastest in FP2 with a time of 1m43.232 on the GoEleven Ducati.

Barcelona WSBK - FP2 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'42.369
2	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'42.586	0.217
3	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'42.615	0.246
4	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'42.788	0.419
5	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	1'42.798	0.429
6	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	1'42.875	0.506
7	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'43.005	0.636
8	91	Leon Haslam	Honda	1'43.072	0.703
9	19	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	1'43.092	0.723
10	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'43.146	0.777
View full results

Barcelona WSBK - FP1 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap	km/h
1	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	1'42.419		162.637
2	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	1'42.578	0.159	162.385
3	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	1'42.608	0.189	162.338
4	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	1'42.698	0.279	162.195
5	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	1'42.715	0.296	162.169
6	91	Leon Haslam	Honda	1'42.743	0.324	162.124
7	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	1'42.772	0.353	162.079
8	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	1'42.863	0.444	161.935
9	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	1'42.919	0.500	161.847
10	32	Isaac Viñales	Kawasaki	1'43.182	0.763	161.435
View full results