WorldSBK Donington: Razgatlioglu tops FP1 ahead of Petrucci and Gerloff

Toprak Razgatlioglu topped the opening practice of WorldSBK Donington, coming in over 0.4 seconds clear of the field.

ROKiT BMW Motorrad’s Toprak Razgatlioglu set the fastest time in the first free practice session at WorldSBK Donington on Friday morning, delivering a 1:26.419 to finish ahead of Barni’s Danilo Petrucci and Bonovo’s Garrett Gerloff.

Petrucci was the only rider who managed to leapfrog the Turk in the 1:26s following a late lap to put him second, while Gerloff also delivered a similarly late one to finish the first session in third, over 0.6 seconds adrift of the time benchmark.

To kick off the opening WorldSBK practice at Donington Park, Andrea Iannone made an early error as he ran off circuit at turn 8 before quickly rejoining the action. Meanwhile, Alex Lowes set the pace with a lap time quicker than last season’s FP1, with Alvaro Bautista slotting into second place early on.

Building up his pace, Toprak Razgatlioglu then powered his way to top spot by nearly half a second before setting a stunning pace, a 1:26.726s, as he moved eight tenths clear of Lowes.

The last rider to set a lap time, Jonathan Rea completed just two out laps in the opening 25 minutes. Bautista proved to be Razgatlioglu’s main challenger as he continued chipping away at the BMW rider’s lap time. However, the two-time defending champion was struggling to break the half second deficit.

Another improvement by over two tenths then saw Razgatlioglu put more than seven tenths between himself and Bautista while Lowes moved from third to second with 15 minutes remaining. However, the gap to Razgatlioglu was still over six tenths.

Still struggling, Iannone went off against turn 8 as he once again avoided a crash while a good lap late on from Danilo Petrucci meant he jumped into second spot, becoming the top Ducati in the process.

Razgatlioglu then improved again in the final five minutes, putting seven tenths between himself and Petrucci as Gerloff settled for third.

Alex Lowes was fourth fastest, ahead of Alvaro Bautista in fifth while Remy Gardner, fresh from his MotoGP German Grand Prix appearance last weekend was sixth. Andrea Locatelli was seventh-fastest, ahead of Nicolo Bulega and Andrea Iannone who ran off twice at Coppice, while Scott Redding completed the top 10.

Technical issues prevented Jonathan Rea from completing a timed lap for the first 25 minutes or so of the session and eventually finished down in 13th.

2024 WorldSBK Donington Park FP1 Results