Ducati 1-2 on opening day of WorldSBK at Mandalika

2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship

Round Two – Mandalika, Indonesia

WorldSBK FP2

The track temperature was registering 52-degrees when FP2 got underway this afternoon at Mandlika but the circuit was much cleaner than the morning session and riders immediately improved their morning markers.

Jonathan Rea was the first to get in the 1m33s and he did that only a couple of minutes into the session.

Fallers in FP2 included Alvaro Bautista and Iker Lecuona.

It wasn’t until much later in the session that riders started dropping in 1m32s, the first of those was set by Toprak Razgatlioglu but in the dying minutes the Turk was displaced first by Alvaro Bautista, and then by Michal Rinaldi who eventually topped the session with a 1m32.468. That compares to Toprak’s race lap record of 1m32.162 and Superpole record of 1m31.371, both set here last year.

Jonathan Rea ended the day fourth quickest ahead of Michael van der Mark, while Remy Gardner had a great opening day to finish P6 ahead of Alex Lowes and Andrea Locatelli.

Bautista topped the speed charts at 294.3 km/h ahead of Xavi Vierge at 292.7 km/h on the Honda. This circuit is not particularly fast thus the gaps in the top speeds were not too spread out but it was notable that the fastest Yamaha was 14th through the speed traps.

WorldSBK Friday Practice Combined Times

WorldSSP FP2

The Mandalika circuit had more grip this afternoon despite the hotter track temperatures. Much of the dust and dirt had been displaced from the circuit after the opening World Superbike practice session. 

Conditions were still tricky though with both Apiwath Wongthananon and Tarran Mackenzie going down early, both unhurt.

Stefano Manzi went down late in the session after setting the pace for much of the session but those last few minutes he missed out on were costly as the Italian was shuffled down the order to P5 by the time the chequered flag came out.

Nicolo Bulega again was on top when it mattered to top Friday ahead of Can Oncu and Niko Tuuli. Marcel Schroetter P4 ahead of Manzi which made it five different manufacturers in the top five; Ducati, Kawasaki, Triumph, MV Agusta then Yamaha.

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Oli Bayliss had some laps cancelled due to yellow flags and also exceeding track limits, the teenager ended Friday just over 1.5-seconds from the Friday benchmark.

WorldSSP Friday Practice Combined Times

Mandalika WSBK Round Schedule

World Superbike Championship Points

2023 FIM Superbike World Championship Calendar
Date	Circuit	WSBK	WSSP600	WSSP300
24-26 Feb	Phillip Island	X	X
3-5 Mar	Mandalika	X	X
21-23 Apr	Assen	X	X	X
5-7 May	Catalunya	X	X	X
2-4 Jun	Misano	X	X	X
30 Jun-02 Jul	Donington Park	X	X
14-16 Jul	Imola	X	X	X
28-30 Jul	Autodrom Most	X	X	X
8-10 Sep	Magny-Cours	X	X	X
22-24 Sep	Aragón	X	X	X
29-Sep-01 Oct	Algarve	X	X	X
13-15 Oct	San Juan Villicum	X	X