Toprak Razgatlioglu maintains his F🍸P1 advantage to finish two tenths clear of title rival Jonathan Rea in World Superbike FP2 at Mandalika.

Despite being 1.5 seconds down on Razgatlioglu’s oཧverall best time from FP1, Alex Lowes quickly improved to go within two tenths of the Yamaha rider🐷’s 1:34.985s. 

Jonathan Rea, who lost conside꧙rable track time in FP1 due to a technical issue, then went quickest forꦇ this session, second overall. 

Lowes then crashed at turn two - the same spot as replacement rider for Loris Cresson, Oliver Konig♏ did this morning. While that was happening, Razgatlioglu went +0.003s down on Rea’s best FP2 time. 

After following each other for a couple of laps, Razgatlioglu dropped back from Rea to then start another pu♊sh lap, a lap that saw him go fastest, although not quite enough to beat his own time from earlier on. 

However, Razgatlioglu did eventually go on to better his fastest lap of the day on his very next lap. A time of 1:34.815s put hi♈m -0.199s clear of Scott Redding who was just th꧑e second rider at this stage to set a sub 1m 35s lap. 

After a brief return to pit lane, Razgatlioglu re-joined the track with team-mate Andrea Locatelli in cl🃏ose proximity. The Turkish rider went another fourth tenths faster which helped the Italian move up to second - six tenths behind the series leader. 

Rea managed to split the two Pata Yama🧸ha riders as he went just under two tenths♎ down on Razgatlioglu, but this time it was sector one not four where the Kawasaki rider struggled to match Razgatlioglu.

Impressive efforts from Garrett Gerloff and Leon Haslam saw both riders jump up to third and fourth during the final fi𒐪ve minꩵutes. Haslam’s team-mate Alvaro Bautista then pipped the British rider to fourth place courtesy of a lap that was a tenth quicker. 

Free Practice One

World Superbike championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu dominated the openওing free practice at Mandalika, while Jonathan Rea was only 1🔜1th fastest after being limited for track time.

An eager Razgatlioglu made his way past Leon Haslam during the early stages as he set about leaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrning the new Mandalika track. 

Razgatlioglu’s first few laps saw him continuously lead Rea by over a second, while Isaac Vinales enjoyed an early run inside the top thr🦹ee.

Sectors three and four seemed to be where Razgatlioglu was making uꦉp most of his time 🍌on Rea and indeed the rest of the field during the first part of FP1. 

Oliver Konig, who is replaci🐠ng the injured Loris Cresson, suffered an early 🐻crash in sector three.

Michael Rinaldi and Rea were the first riders to get wඣithi🌠n a second of Razgatlioglu, with the former +0.637s down on the Pata Yamaha man. 

Razgatlioglu began his second run by going a tenth quicker to once again extend his margin o🧔ver Rinaldi. The Turkish star hammered home his advantage just two laps later to lead Rinaldi by nine tenths. 

Impressive WorldSBK rookie Axel Bassani went third fastest after back-to-back low 1m 37s laps - 10 minutes to go. Michael Van Der Mark came close to a big crash at turn 15 after t🅠he rear tyre came around under braking, but luckily for the BMW rider he was able to stay aboard his BMW M 1000 RR machine. 

A couple of fast laps came in from Alex Lowes 🦋late on to put him second, however, the Kawasaki rider was still seven tenths adr🍃ift of Razgatlioglu. 

Lowes’ third lap significantly reduced Razg✤atlioglu’s lead - down to three tenths, while Vinales jumped back into third.&ꦅnbsp;

But just as th๊e gaps seemed to close up, Razgatlioglu once again wen♐t over a second clear of the rest. While Razgatlioglu was showing utter dominance around the Indonesian layout, Rea remained in pit lane due to an issue with the rear of his ZX10-RR bike. 

A stunning 💫1:34.985s from Razgatlioglu then put him over 1.5 seconds clear of Lowes ♍as he was the only rider to break under the 1m 36s barrier. 

Rea eventually got back out on track, however, it was too late to set a flying lap, while third in the championship Scott Redding improved late on to take fourth, behinꦺd Razgatlioglu, Lowes and🐬 Garrett Gerloff.

BMW rider Tom Sykes made his return to WorldSBK action for the first time since Catalunya after being absent for the last three r𓃲ounds. This weekend is expected to be Sykes’ last in the championship ahead of a move back to BSB. 

The same situation applies to fellow Brit Haslam who will leave Honda at the end of this weekend’s inaugural race wee✅kend in Mandalika, while 10-year veteran Chaz Davies is als𒈔o competiting in his final WorldSBK races ahead of retirement.