The World Superbike Championship has got off to an official start, with some “new faces” standing out: Andrea Locatelli led FP1, but it was Alex Lowes who stood out in FP2 with the best time of the day.
The first session was immediately marked by raindrops and problems with the bike’s GPS for some riders, such as Nicolò Bulega and Andrea Iannone, with Scott Redding also having an unresolved technical issue, but off the bike.
Back to what really matters, the performance of the riders, the highlight was Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha), who finished the session with a lap in 1:29.197s to beat the Lowes brothers: Alex (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was 0.106s behind the Italian, and Sam (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team), making his debut in the championship, was third.
Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was fourth and beat the returning Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven).
Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) looked to be struggling, taking eighth, 0.837s off the #55, with Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) rounding out the top ten, 1.157s off the leader. Jonatha Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) was 12th.
In the second session of the day events changed, but not drastically. Alex Lowes was this time the fastest with his best lap completed in 1:29.042s, with Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), the 2023 WSSP world champion, 0.059s slower than the session leader. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) showed a highly competitive pace and was third, 0.195s behind his compatriot.
Michael Van Der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was fourth, ahead of Sam Lowes. Andrea Iannone once again showed a strong pace and was sixth.
Razgatlioglu improved one position overall and was ninth, with Bautista dropping to 12th and Rea an unsurprising 16th.
FP2:
FP1: