Rea pips Lecuona to top the first practice at Aragon

The 10th round of the 2023 WorldSBK Championship got underway at Motorland Aragon with Jonathan Rea setting the fastest time in the first free practice on Friday, edging Honda’s Iker Lecuona.

Jonathan Rea demonstrated superb form on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR around the Motorland Aragon Circuit where the majority of WorldSBK testing takes place. The Ulsterman has just three more races left with Kawasaki before ending his long relationship with the outfit in preparation for his switch to Yamaha.

Rea’s benchmark time of 1m 50.309secs gave him a significant lead over the rest of the field for the majority of the morning until Team HRC Honda’s Lecuona surprised everyone by clocking in at the very end of the session.

Lecuona was only 0.032 seconds behind the six-time WorldSBK Champion placing second. The Team HRC rider, who has recently been engaged with many MotoGP outings with Honda, crossed the finish line alongside teammate Xavi Vierge, who also performed well in sixth.

Danilo Petrucci, who recently renewed his contract with Barni Ducati through 2024, turned out to be the best of the Ducati squad in third place.

Meanwhile, Garrett Gerloff, riding the Bonovo Action BMW M 1000 RR continued where he left off at Magny-Cours by placing fourth, marking four different manufacturers in the top four.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who is looking for a new ride for 2024, was fifth fastest, ahead of Xavi Vierge, while the two front-runners for the title, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista steadily advanced to seventh and eighth place, respectively.

The top ten was rounded out by Andrea Locatelli and Phillip Oettl.

Florian Marino, who was competing in his first WorldSBK race in five years, was a strong 13th quickest on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR that he had taken over from the absent Alex Lowes.

2023 Aragon WorldSBK, Motorland Aragon Free Practice 1 Results