Rea, Razgatlioglu under Aragon race lap record as battle intensifies

Rea, who is looking to reclaim the #1 plate he lost for the first time since 2016, has notoriously gone well at Aragon in the past. 

The Kawasaki rider took two wins out of three to begin last season, a result that wouldn’t go amiss this weekend, however, Razgatlioglu was right there with the six-time world champion.

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Typically one of his weaker venues, Razgatlioglu seems to have adapted his riding style to the Teruel-based circuit, making the Pata Yamaha rider a force anywhere the calendar takes them.

The top two were far and away the pacesetters, which at this crucial stage of the pre-season is no real surprise given both men are the expected 2022 title favourites.  

"It was positive all in all. It was nice to ride again at Aragon; I haven’t ridden here for quite some time," Rea told WorldSBK.com after he posted a time of 1:49.394s which is quicker than the official race lap record. 

"I felt a good flow with the bike straight away, even with cooler conditions this morning. It’s going to be tough to draw any conclusions for the race weekend because the forecast has the race weekend very warm, and right now, it’s, to put it mildly, Baltic out there. 

"Even your hands are quite cold when riding. We confirmed the ideas that we’ve been working through in the winter tests, which is positive. Been working in a good way. 

"A bit more of that tomorrow, a few more practice starts; I’ve been nailing my practice starts here so that’s positive."

While practicing race starts has been a big element of his pre-season program, developing Yamaha’s new electronics package has been Razgatlioglu’s. 

Citing the same cold temperatures as an issue, Razgatlioglu said this after day-one: "For me, the first day was very, very positive. It was very cold this morning, only five or six riders went out. 

"In the afternoon, I tried my second bike and I felt some problems. We were working on this. On the last exit, I used my first bike because it was feeling much better. 

"I tried each tyre because I needed to check each bike. I’m surprised because I saw a 1’49.4, because normally my plan is not to push for a lap time. 

"I’m happy because the feeling is much better. In FP3, I tried a race simulation and did 15 laps. After the technical problem, I stopped. It was very positive and I’m very happy about this. 

"This is testing, not a race weekend. The race weekend will be a bit warmer. We feel like we are ready. Tomorrow, we will try again with more setup with the new electronics because after ten laps we saw a little problem."

Due to the technical gremlins Razgatlioglu suffered, it meant his best lap of the day came during session #2, as opposed to Rea who went quickest in S3. 

Away from the top two, Alvaro Bautista continued his extremely strong start to the year for Ducati as he finished third quickest. 

However, unlike previous tests, Bautista was unable to keep pace with the top two, eventually finishing six tenths down. Bautista also suffered a crash towards the end of the day. 

Bautista added: "We've been working a lot on the setup and electronics and we have been able to get some very interesting data. I'm really sorry for the crash on the last run. I went out for the first time with the second bike and, if I'm honest, I don't know what happened. 

"We will have to check the data to understand it better. Luckily there were no consequences. 

"Anyway, I am confident about the pace we had with the SC0. Tomorrow we'll also try the softer tires."