PATA Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu outperformed championship rivals Jonathan Rea and Alvaro Bautista throughout the two practice sessions on Friday for the Argentina World Superbike round.
Razgatlioglu ended the day as the best rider at Circuito San Juan Villicum despite trailing Ducati’s Bautista in the standings by 56 points heading into the weekend. He set a time of 1m37.511s with 15 minutes left in FP1.
His record-breaking time was more than a tenth faster than the lap he recorded on the pole in 2021, and it put him barely two tenths ahead of Rea, riding the factory Kawasaki, who was his closest rival. Bautista was in third place, a similar distance behind.
Even though Rea won the session, both Rea and Bautista were able to surpass their respective FP1 timings in the afternoon. However, neither rider could match Razgatlioglu’s benchmark, and they were forced to settle for second and third place in the overall standings.
Alex Lowes of Kawasaki earned the title of “best of the rest” rider on Friday after narrowly beating Andrea Locatelli of Yamaha to finish fourth overall with a time of 1m38.068s posted in FP2. Despite the fact that Axel Bassani’s best time in FP1 of 1m38.443s was about a second slower than Razgatlioglu’s, he was still ranked sixth and the highest independent rider on the Motocorsa Ducati.
Iker Lecuona placed Honda seventh in the combined order after failing to improve upon his FP2 pace, and Scott Redding just edged his teammate Michael van der Linde to place as the top BMW rider in the classification in eighth.
Loris Baz, riding a satellite Bonovo BMW, followed them closely, while Garrett Gerloff, on a GRT Yamaha, wasn’t too far behind in eleventh place.
Maximilian Scheib, who was called in at the last minute to replace Hafizh Syahrin after he sustained an injury while preparing for a bicycle road race, finished 21st in both sessions on his WSBK comeback.
2022 WORLD SUPERBIKE SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA FREE PRACTICE 2 RESULTS
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Jonathan Rea | GBR | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | 1:37.707s |
| 2 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | TUR | PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK | +0.071s |
| 3 | Alvaro Bautista | SPA | Aruba.It Racing Ducati | +0.279s |
| 4 | Alex Lowes | GBR | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | +0.361s |
| 5 | Axel Bassani | ITA | Motocorsa Ducati | +0.741s |
| 6 | Iker Lecuona | SPA | Team HRC WorldSBK | +0.819s |
| 7 | Michael Van Der Mark | SPA | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | +0.894s |
| 8 | Andrea Locatelli | ITA | PATA Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK | +0.899s |
| 9 | Loris Baz | FRA | Bonovo Action BMW | +0.973s |
| 10 | Garrett Gerloff | USA | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team | +0.994s |
| 11 | Scott Redding | GBR | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | +1.039s |
| 12 | Michael Rinaldi | ITA | Aruba.It Racing Ducati | +1.105s |
| 13 | Xavi Vierge | SPA | Team HRC WorldSBK | +1.226s |
| 14 | Eugene Laverty | IRL | Bonovo Action BMW | +1.389s |
| 15 | Philipp Oettl | GER | GoEleven Ducati | +1.698s |
| 16 | Lucas Mahias | FRA | Puccetti Kawasaki | +1.704s |
| 17 | Xavi Fores | SPA | Barni Spark Ducati Team | +1.724s |
| 18 | Kohta Nozane | JPN | GRT Yamaha | +1.778s |
| 19 | Leandro Mercado | ARG | MIE Honda Racing | +2.122s |
| 20 | Oliver Konig | CZE | Orelac Racing Kawasaki | +2.270s |
| 21 | Maximilian Scheib | GER | MIE Honda Racing | +3.403s |
| 22 | Marco Solorza | ARG | Pedercini Kawasaki | +4.792s |
