Donington Park WorldSBK: Toprak Razgatlioglu dominates FP1 ahead of Danilo Petrucci

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.

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.

Setting a stunning pace, a 1:26.726s was then set by Razgatlioglu 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.

An improvement with 15 minutes remaining saw Lowes move from third to second, 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.

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.