Usual suspects top opening day of practice at Aragon WorldSBK

2022 FIM Superbike World Championship
Round One – Aragon – Friday

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) set the pace at the front of the field on the opening day of the 2022 competition at Aragon.

Rea’s best time was a 1’49.301s set in the opening 45-minute Free Practice 1 session on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR machine as he looks to start off the 2022 campaign as he did in 2021, with victory at the Spanish venue. Although he was unable to improve his time in the afternoon session, he completed a 16-lap stint in FP2 with 15 of the 16 laps in the 1’50s or lower bracket as he looked to complete a race simulation.

Explaining how he expects the weekend to go for him following his strong pace, Rea said: “We focused on understanding which tyre we can use for the race. Just built up step by step, a couple more starts, and a longer run in the afternoon. Tomorrow morning, with FP3, we have to see what the temperature brings because we’re in a strange window. We can be fast with both tyres but depending on the temperature we face in the race will determine our tyre setup. The time only really matters when it comes to Superpole. We could finish fastest today, which was nice, and we achieved all our goals. In the afternoon, the idea was to start with a good rhythm, not to destroy the tyre, and to have good tyre at the end. That strategy seemed to work. What’s important is at the end of the race here at Aragon, there’s always a tyre drop, and the last five laps can be critical about whether you’ve done your homework or not.”

Bautista was able to improve his lap time between sessions with the Spanish rider posting a 1’50.108s in FP1 before improving by half-a-second to a 1’49.606s in FP2 as he finished three- tenths away from Rea. Bautista used the new SCQ tyre on his final run when he improved his lap time with an eight-lap stint but, like the six-time Champion, Bautista completed a race simulation on race tyres and posted 14 laps in the 1’50s bracket to show a similar pace to Rea.

Bautista discussed potential tyre choices over the course of the three races, saying: “We have to check the data and see which is the best option for us. I am sure, at the front, I will use the SC1 because my feeling with the other compound isn’t so good, but at the rear, for sure in Race 1, will be with the SCX because with SC0 I don’t feel a lot of grip. Even if I’m consistent, I’m not fast. The choice for Race 1, I’m almost sure it’ll be SCX.”

Razgatlioglu was another who completed a race simulation on Friday although his pace was slightly slower over the course of that, with only nine times in the 1’50s bracket and four under 1’50.5s. His overall fastest time, though, was a 1’49.665s set in the morning session, when he set the second-quickest time behind Rea. Aragon is a track that Yamaha have not won at since 2011 with Marco Melandri, but could that run end in 2022?

Talking about his day, Razgatlioglu said: “We used the SCX tyre but in the first session, we were not happy. I saw Jonny used the SC0 tyre and got a very good lap time. In the afternoon, we were working on the race bike and we tried a race simulation. After nine or ten laps, the front tyre dropped, and I came back to the box. The feeling with the rear wasn’t but the I felt started to drop after ten laps. Tomorrow, we will improve this, because in the race I need the front tyre. I like hard braking. I’m very happy with the rear tyre and after ten laps I felt a good grip.”

Garrett Gerloff – P4

“I’m feeling confident, even though some of the guys look to have really strong race pace. Anyway, we did a good job, and in the morning I went out with just one set of tyres to do a long run, as we needed to see the performance. In FP2, I got a feel of the track in hotter conditions for the first time properly this year. I feel Yamaha has done a really good job and we have a great package overall. I just want to have a good qualifying and to keep building from there.”

Michael Rinaldi – P5

“I am satisfied with what we did today. The bike’s set-up has improved a lot compared to the tests at the beginning of the week and that has given me a very positive feeling. I think the race pace is strong, in line with the front guys. Certainly, however, we need to do something more with the qualifying tyre, which up until now I have not been able to exploit to the full“.

Alex Lowes – P6

“In the recent tests I was doing a lot more work on used tyres compared to the others. In the tests we did not have very much track time. I have got a lot of experience now so I know that tomorrow, in the race, between lap nine and eighteen sometimes the difference in lap time can be massive – because the track is so long here. It is so important to have a bike set-up that you can manage in this part of the race, so maybe I was working more on this. Now my body is good, I feel good and I can ride properly. I need to find a bit more feeling in the front end as some other riders are a little bit ahead. But if I can have a good qualifying, and stay there with them, I think in the second part of the race I can be quite strong. That is how I have tried to plan the week. I am ready to race tomorrow.”

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Andrea Locatelli – P8

“I’m a bit frustrated because the feeling with the bike in the second session was not bad, but the feeling with the rear grip is strange – I want to be able to push more and use the throttle, so this is our main problem now and we need to work on this part. If I can work a little bit more here, maybe we can improve a lot, start more in front and maybe we can have a good race. The feeling in the front and on the bike as a whole is good, but in the rear I don’t have grip so tonight we will try to find more. In the end, not an easy day for me but we will continue to work and see what is possible tomorrow.”

Iker Lecuona – P10

“I’m pleased with the work we’ve done today. This morning we basically worked with the hard tyre before putting in the soft, with which we improved our lap time, not by a huge amount because we are still a bit far off, but we saw some progression. Then, in the afternoon, conditions were a bit different, windier, but we kept working to prepare for the race, making a long run of 15 laps in which we were very constant. We are a few tenths short, that’s clear, but we’ve had a constructive day and now have a lot of data to look at in order to try and build on our speed tomorrow.”

Xavi Vierge – P13

“I’m happy with our first day. It was important to recover as soon as possible and as well as possible in the days following my injury and I’m pleased to say that I’m already feeling better today than I did during testing earlier this week. I also think we made a step forward in terms of our consistency as, during the test, I couldn’t make more than two or three laps, while today we already did a long run of eleven, so this is really important looking ahead to tomorrow. We’ll now analyse all the data to see where we can improve a little more, but considering my physical condition, I think we are doing a good job.”

WorldSBK Aragon Combined Practice Times

WorldSSP600

Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) dominated the opening practice session of the season and then went quicker again in FP2 to further stamp his authority, finishing more than half-a-second ahead of rookie Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team), the Ducati rider the only other combatant to lap inside the 1’53s bracket. Fellow rookie Lorenzo Baldassarri (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) completed the top three.

Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was the fourth fastest on Day 1 as the new MV Agusta F3 800 RR made its debut during at a round featuring the new fairing only seen on Day 2 at the Supported Test. The following 14 riders were within one second behind the top four, with Can Oncu (Kawasaki Pucetti Racing) in fifth, 2021 podium finisher in Aragon Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) in sixth, and Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing) in seventh. Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph) was the lead Triumph rider in eighth place despite an FP2 crash at Turn 12.

Aussie debutante Oli Bayliss finished the opening day of practice ranked 25th out of the 30 entrants.

Oli Bayliss

“We had a good day today and I immediately had positive sensations with the bike. We’re doing our best, but we know we have a long road ahead of us in order to be competitive and fight at the front. We have real room for improvement this weekend and I think the potential is there to be able to grow.”

WorldSSP600 Aragon Combined Practice Times

WorldSSP300

2017 WorldSSP300 Champion Marc Garcia (Yamaha MS Racing) ended the day on top of the time-sheets on Friday of the Pirelli Aragon Round. He set his fastest time of 2’07.485 in Free Practice 1, with his best afternoon lap time being about a second slower. “This morning we were fast on track. But this afternoon, the weather changed with more cloudy and windy conditions. But overall, I felt good with the tyre in FP1 and FP2” explained Garcia.

Alvaro Diaz (Arco Motor University Team) set his best time in the afternoon session to finish P2 while Bruno Ieraci (Prodina Racing WorldSSP300) was third in the combined standings.

Ton Kawakami (AD78 Team Brasil by MS Racing), Lennox Lehmann (Freudenberg KTM – Paligo Racing) and Victor Steeman (MTM Kawasaki) completed the top six, meaning all three manufacturers featured in the top five.

Young Aussie Harry Khouri was 24th and has a second to find in order to battle inside the top ten on Sunday.

WorldSSP300 Aragon Combined Practice Times

2022 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship
Round One – Aragon – Schedule – AEST

Saturday

Sunday

2022 WorldSBK Calendar