Bautista leads Ducati 1-2-3 in the second practice at Aragon

Alvaro Bautista finished first in the second free practice in spite of a slow start at Round 10 of the 2023 WorldSBK Championship at Motorland Aragon.

Alvaro Bautista claimed the lead in the afternoon session followed by Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Danilo Petrucci, placing three Ducatis in the top three as Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea was fourth fastest.

The reigning world champion enters his home event with a healthy 57 point lead over Toprak Razgatlioglu with three events and nine races left on the 2023 WorldSBK Championship.

Additionally, the Ducati Panigale V4 R has a solid track record at Alcaniz, therefore the chances are mainly in Bautista’s favor whilst Razgatlioglu has frequently cited the venue as his least favorable circuit. This makes Aragon a particularly favorable place for Bautista to win.

This trend continued during Friday’s free practice. Bautista moved to the top of the combined order with a fastest time of 1 minute, 49.649 seconds outpacing Michael Ruben Rinaldi by just under a tenth.

The Italian, who led the Go Eleven Ducati to its first-ever WorldSBK victory at Aragon in 2019, appeared in fine shape as he made his appeal to teams for a 2024 WorldSBK ride after being dropped from the Aruba Ducati lineup.

Danilo Petrucci reinforced Ducati’s dominant trend at the top of the field with the third-best time and two tenths of a second behind Bautista, atop the satellite Barni machine.

Jonathan Rea, who had set the fastest time in FP1, was the only other rider to finish under 1 minute 50 seconds and finished the session in fourth.

Iker Lecuona finished a successful Friday with the fifth-fastest time of the day, just ahead of Garrett Gerloff on the Bonovo BMW.

This made the American by far the best of the M 1000 RR contingent, as opposed to teammates Loris Baz, Michael van der Mark, and Scott Redding who finished in 13th, 14th, and 15th place, respectively.

Toprak Razgatlioglu ended up as Yamaha’s top finisher, coming in seventh place with the outfit being the slowest among the five manufacturers. He was closely followed by Dominique Aegerter and Andrea Locatelli in eighth and ninth.

The top ten was rounded out by Honda’s Xavi Vierge.

2023 Aragon WorldSBK, Motorland Aragon Free Practice 2 Results