Garett Gerloff(GRT Yamaha) set the pace in the WorldWSBK Free Practice 2 held at Magny-Cours which remained wet for the second practice session, after setting a benchmark timed lap in the last minutes taking on Jonathan Rea.
Jonathan Rea had topped the morning practice session after recording a time of 1m 49.356s and his dominance continued for the better part of FP2 and continuously improved his time from 1m 53.140s to 1m 50.381s in the first half of the session. Later on, with only 21 minutes to go to the end of the session Team Go Eleven’s Michael Reuben Rinaldi was able to beat Rea’s time after recording 1m 50.489s and a few moments later improved on his time, recording 1m 50.122s.
Jonathan Rea was able to take back the lead recording 1m 50s 10 minutes later, and later improved on his record creating a gap between him and the other riders as he set a series of fast laps. His final effort landed him at 1m 48.991s which was the fastest lap so far in the two Friday practice sessions and appeared to have sealed the practice honours to continue leading in the championship standings to get his 6th world championship title.
Garett Gerloff would later challenge the benchmark time by recording 1m 48.830s moments before the chequered flag was put down, emerging the fastest in the Friday afternoon session. Rea had to settle for the second position after he was beaten by only 0.015s. Michael Reuben Rinaldi took the third spot being the only rider to achieve the 1m 48s time bracket.
Ten Kate Yamaha’s Loriz Baz finished fourth as Alex Lowes took the fifth position only a tenth of a second later finishing the second of the Factory Kawasakis. BMW’s Tom Sykes finished sixth after recording 1m 49.717s, which had been ranking as high as 2nd in the better parts of the session, but his record was later challenged.
Ducatti’s Scott Redding finished seventh, despite being Rea’s closest challenger in the title fight. Honda’s Leon Haslam, Eugene Laverty(BMW) and Michael van der Mark on the factory Yamaha finished 8th, 9th and 10th respectively rounding the top 10 riders of the Friday afternoon session.
Chaz Davies (Ducati) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) were 11th and 12th respectively, both setting their quickest times in the afternoon session.
