Catalunya World Superbike Friday Practice Results: Bautista lays down a marker

World Superbike championship leader Alvaro Bautista was in dominant form during FP2 as he topped the session by over three tenths. 

While it was his teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi who stole the headlines in FP1, Bautista, fresh off a new contract extension with Ducati, was the early pacesetter in FP2.

However, Bautista’s time at the top was brief as Rinaldi set a time of 1:42.049s to go quickest. 

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With track temperatures ramping up compared to the morning session, lap times reflected such a change as Rinaldi was four tenths slower than his FP1 effort, which was also set early on. 

As Bautista continued to churn out low 1m 42s lap times which others struggled to do, Jonathan Rea was unable to replicate his strong start in FP1 as he sat in P9.

The Kawasaki rider, who is using a new chassis this weekend after upgrades were brought forward by the Japanese manufacturer, was over one second off the pace set by both factory Ducati riders.

As was the case in the recent Catalunya WorldSBK test, Bautista was showing incredible race pace compared to his rivals.

Bautista, who remained in the low-to-mid 1m 42s bracket, seemed to have a few tenths in his pocket.

A corner that has caused many issues over the years, turn five claimed its first crasher as Andrea Locatelli lost the front-end of his R1.

Unlike FP1, several of the big hitters attempted a time attackas Bautista set a stunning time of 1:41.486s. 

Garrett Gerloff moved up to third prior to Bautista going quickest, however, no one was able to live with Bautista’s final sector.

Catalunya World Superbike records 

Lap record - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati 1:41.135s

2022 Race Winners

Race 1 - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati

Superpole Race - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati 

Race 2 - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati

Rinaldi led the way after Free Practice 1 of the Catalan World Superbike round 

Stand-in for the injured Michael Van Der Mark, Ivo Lopez completed just one instalation lap before a mechanical issue saw his FP1 come to an early end.

Weekend schedule (UK time) 

Friday

Free Practice 1 - 09:30-10:15

Free Practice 2 - 14:00-14:45

Saturday 

Free Practice 3 - 08:00-08:30

Superpole - 10:10-10:25

Race 1 - 13:00

Sunday 

Warm-up - 08:00-08:15

Superpole Race -10:00

Race 2 - 13:00