Catalunya World Superbike FP3 Results: Bautista destroys the competition

Alvaro Bautista has re-enforced his status as favourite heading into the opening Catalunya World Superbike race following a dominant showing in FP3. 

With teammate Bautista returning to pit lane after an installation lap, Michael Ruben Rinaldi took full advantage to set the pace at the beginning of FP3. 

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That was before Garrett Gerloff, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Axel Bassani all jumped ahead of the Italian.

Gerloff broke into the 1m 41s barrier for the first time this weekend, while Razgatlioglu joined him in setting a sub 1m 42s time. 

But Rinaldi, who was the main challenger to Bautista on day-one, responded with a time of 1:41.588s to go fastest. 

Trying to overtake Andrea Locatelli into turn one, Danilo Petrucci had a scary moment on the front-end of his Ducati as it snaked and shaked its way into the corner before the Italian released the brake to avoid crashing. 

After struggling during FP2, Rea and Kawasaki found themselves in trouble once again as the six-time world champion was only seventh - +0.561s down on Rinaldi.

Keen to set a time attack ahead of qualifying, Xavi Vierge moved up from 20th to P3 after coming close to unseeding Rinaldi at the head of the leaderboard. 

Then came a stunning lap time from Bautista as the reigning world champion broke into the mid 1m 40s bracket.

Bautista’s time was close to a second clear of Locatelli in second, while Bassani’s FP3 ended with a crash at turn five.

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

One of his best circuits on the calendar, Gerloff remained the fastest BMW rider come the end of FP3, something that’s usually been said about Scott Redding in 2023.

A technical issue at the beginning of FP3 saw Alex Lowes reduced to just a handful of laps at the end of the 30-minute session. 

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