Nicolò Bulega led the way on the first day of the Superbike World Championship in Barcelona. It was in the second session that the best times of Friday emerged, although not everyone improved from the morning session to the afternoon session.
One of those who managed to do so was Bulega. The Italian from Aruba.it Ducati led virtually the entire session, making gradual improvements until he reached the benchmark time of 1m40.907s. His teammate, Álvaro Bautista, was the closest contender, 0.247s behind. This means that Bulega was the only one to lap in the 1m40s.
In third place was Toprak Razgatlıoğlu (ROKiT BMW). The Turkish rider led a BMW one-two in FP1 ahead of his teammate Michael van der Mark. Neither of them improved in the second session, but they still did enough to finish third and fourth, respectively. Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) completed the top five.
In FP2 specifically, Razgatlıoğlu finished fifth, Rea ended up seventh, and van der Mark in 13th. In that afternoon session, Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team/Ducati) posted the third-fastest time, with rookie Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS/Ducati) in fourth.
Combined standings FP1 + FP2: