Alvaro Bautista fastest in the Friday practice of Assen WorldSBK

Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista topped the speed in Friday practice for the season’s second World Superbike event at Assen, beating off defending champion Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea.

In FP2, Bautista set a time of 1m34.382s with 10 minutes left on the clock, barely 0.082s faster than Razgatlioglu’s FP1 time to finish the day fastest of all.

In the first practice session of the weekend,Toprak Razgatlioglu was unstoppable, finishing more than four-tenths ahead of his nearest rival, but he couldn’t improve on his laptime in the afternoon and had to settle for second place on the combined timesheets.

On his factory Kawasaki, Rea made a significant gain in speed between the two sessions, but his best effort of the day was still three tenths slower than Bautista’s mark on the Panigale V4 R.

However, Alex Lowes made the day for Kawasaki after finishing a good fourth with a time of 1m34.772s, nearly matching the pace of his six-time championship-winning teammate.

After lapping the Dutch circuit in 1m34.884s, Iker Lecuona made it four different manufacturers in the top five, but the Honda rider’s effort was marred by a massive accident at Turn 3 in FP2, necessitating a trip to the medical checks.

The single red flag of the day was raised as a result of this, although the track was quickly cleared and the session resumed after a brief pause.

Lecuona was able to return later in the practice to complete some critical laps, but he was unable to improve on his earlier performance and finished ninth in FP2 – and fifth overall.

GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff was the top independent rider in Friday practice, beating out factory Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi by by 0.017s in the general classification.

Loris Baz of Bonovo MGM outperformed the factory BMW duo in practice, clocking a time of 1m35.320s to finish eighth fastest, ahead of Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli and Axel Bassani’s Ducati Motocorsa.

On the works BMW 1000RR, Scott Redding finished over three tenths behind Baz in 11th, with teammate Michael van der Mark further behind on his return from injury.

Leon Haslam, a five-time WSBK race winner, finished 17th and 14th in the two sessions, filling in for the Pedercini Kawasaki team’s dismissed Loris Cresson.

2022 WORLD SUPERBIKE ASSEN, NETHERLANDS – FREE PRACTICE (2) RESULTS

2022 WORLD SUPERBIKE ASSEN, NETHERLANDS – FREE PRACTICE (1) RESULTS