Michael Ruben Rinaldi was the fastest on Friday at the Jerez round of the World Superbike Championship. The title contenders finished in the top three, with Nicolò Bulega beating Toprak Razgatlioglu for second place.
In the morning, Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) set the pace in FP1, being 0.022s faster than Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW), in a session where Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven/Ducati) recorded the third-fastest time. The session was notable for its balance, with the top 14 riders within less than a second of each other.
As expected, the best lap times came in the afternoon during FP2. Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) was the first leader but was soon overtaken by Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team/Ducati). The Italian led on three different occasions and spent nearly half an hour at the top.
However, with six minutes remaining, Rinaldi (Motocorsa Racing/Ducati) posted the fastest lap of all with a time of 1m39.591s. Bulega came close, finishing 0.150s behind, while Petrucci ended up fourth, 0.229s off the pace. Razgatlioglu secured the fourth-fastest time, 0.277s behind the leader, with Rea completing the top five.
In the combined standings, Razgatlioglu was third, being one of the few riders who didn’t improve from morning to afternoon. The Turkish rider, who leads the championship, was 0.025s slower than Bulega and 0.175s off Rinaldi’s best time.
Timesheets:
FP2 results🏁👇
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