Álvaro Bautista was the fastest in the second free practice of the World Superbike Championship in Assen. Although not all riders improved compared to FP1, this was the session where the best time of the day was recorded – thanks to the fact that the track started to dry.
The riders had 45 minutes at their disposal, during which there was a red flag caused by a problem on the track. During the interruption, it started to rain and the top of the leaderboard did not change afterwards.
Until the interruption, ten riders led at some point. The first to set a flying lap was Phillip Öttl (GMT94 Yamaha), who was then surpassed by Tito Rabat (Kawasaki Puccetti). Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW) was the next man in front.
The next ten minutes saw a rapid decrease in the reference time, with constant changes in the leaderboard… until Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) clocked a time of 1m35.473s setting the best lap of the day. 22 minutes had passed and from then on, no one dethroned the Spaniard.
Razgatliogliu was the closest, finishing second 0.277s behind. Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha) set the third fastest time, while the top five was completed by Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Ducati) and Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha). Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) was sixth 0.468s off the pace.
In the combined standings, the order in the top six remains the same. The only difference is that Razgatlioglu set his best lap in FP1, and although he was second overall in the two sessions, he was 0.211s behind Bautista – therefore, slightly closer than in FP2.
Combined times FP1 + FP2:
FINAL RESULTS from #WorldSBK FP2 ⏱️
— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) April 19, 2024
1️⃣ @19Bautista
2️⃣ @toprak_tr54
3️⃣ @GardnerRemy #DutchWorldSBK 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/KinJVIWryl
