Razgatlioglu tops extended FP3 as conditions improve

Full Argentina WorldSBK FP3 results

Toprak Razgatlioglu has reeled in Friday’s fastest riders Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea to top the altered FP3 session at Circuto San Juan Villicum.

After a tricky Friday with both practice sessions hampered by slippery conditions due to sand and dirt on track, much to the riders’ frustrations, an extended FP3 got underway with all riders lapping around three seconds faster almost instantly following work to clean up the circuit surface.

Razgatlioglu, fresh from his maiden World Superbike wins which came in Magny-Cours, made the most of improving conditions to top the session with a 1m 39.651s to beat Bautista by over one quarter of a second ahead of qualifying.

That saw Rea shuffled to third place for Kawasaki with the newly-crowned five-time World Superbike champion in front of Pata Yamaha duo Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes.

Chaz Davies also found improvements in the grippier conditions on the Aruba.it Racing Ducati to take sixth place fractionally ahead of Loris Baz on the Ten Kate Racing Yamaha and GRT Yamaha’s Sandro Cortese with the top eight split by just over six-tenths.

With Michael Ruben Rinaldi in ninth for Barni Ducati, Leon Haslam struggled to find the same gains as his front-running rivals in 10^th place for Kawasaki as Marco Melandri recovered from an early FP3 off to take 11^th place for GRT Yamaha.

Eugene Laverty leapt up the timing screen to 12^th place on the Team Goeleven Ducati ahead of lead Honda rider Leon Camier and Pedercini Kawasaki’s Jordi Torres.

With Alessandro Delbianco (Honda) in 15^th, Tom Sykes had a muted FP3 down in 16^th place and 2.7s off the pace but still in front of BMW team-mate Markus Reiterberger and Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari.

Home hero Leandro Mercado failed to complete any laps in FP3 leaving him last overall for Orelac Kawasaki.