Pata Yamaha’s Alex Lowes halved the gap to Alvaro Bautista in the second WorldSBK free practice at Motorland Aragon this afternoon but the Ducati man still leads by more than half a second.
Bautista upped his pace to a 1’49.607 to top the day’s timesheets but Lowes found three-quarters of a second to end on a 1’50.126 which was enough to fend off a challenge from four-time world champion Jonathan Rea.
Rea doesn’t look that comfortable this weekend and mechanics had his ZX-10RR in several pieces halfway through the session. He came out for his final run and finished with a 1’50.149 to trail Bautista by 0.542s.
Bautista has the measure of his home track and is fastest in all sectors bar the third, where he is outgunned by Tom Sykes by a tenth of a second.
Telling is the fourth sector where Bautista opens a gap of a quarter of a second over Eugene Laverty - also Ducati mounted - which also accounts for his almost five kilometre per hour top speed advantage.
Sykes, on the BMW, is putting up some sort of fight when he isn’t hampered by his meagre top speed (14kph down on Bautista). The former champion ended his day in fourth place and six-tenths off the top - but only a tenth behind Lowes even after a minor turn-one crash.
Laverty, meanwhile, is also impressing on the private Goeleven V4R, putting in a 1’50.356 during his final run to secure fifth place.
GRT Yamaha’s Sandro Cortese flew into sixth place to depose Leon Haslam late on. The reigning WorldSSP king set a 1’50.636 which was a tenth up on the 2018 BSB champ.
Markus Reiterberger, on the second works BMW, ended his day in eighth with Chaz Davies ninth. Davies had some technical problems early on and was the only rider to not improve on his FP1 efforts but he managed to stay inside the top ten.
Michael Rinaldi put his Barni Ducati in 11th to head off an off-form Marco Melandri with an even more off-form Michael van der Mark behind him. The Dutchman trails team-mate Lowes by almost a second after the first day.
Leon Camier made some inroads into the top times but is still struggling in 16th place and 2.7s off the pace.
Top speeds
1 19 A. BAUTISTA Ducati Panigale V4 R 314,0
2 22 A. LOWES Yamaha YZF R1 308,6
3 7 C. DAVIES Ducati Panigale V4 R 306,8
4 21 M. RINALDI Ducati Panigale V4 R 305,9
5 91 L. HASLAM Kawasaki ZX-10RR 305,1
6 50 E. LAVERTY Ducati Panigale V4 R 305,1
7 36 L. MERCADO Kawasaki ZX-10RR 304,2
8 1 J. REA Kawasaki ZX-10RR 303,4
9 33 M. MELANDRI Yamaha YZF R1 303,4
10 11 S. CORTESE Yamaha YZF R1 302,5
11 28 M. REITERBERGER BMW S1000 RR 301,7
12 23 R. KIYONARI Honda CBR1000RR 300,8
13 60 M. VAN DER MARK Yamaha YZF R1 300,0
14 66 T. SYKES BMW S1000 RR 300,0
15 54 T. RAZGATLIOGLU Kawasaki ZX-10RR 299,2
16 81 J. TORRES Kawasaki ZX-10RR 299,2
17 2 L. CAMIER Honda CBR1000RR 297,5
18 52 A. DELBIANCO Honda CBR1000RR 286,5
Pace
In terms of pace, Bautista put in two 1'49s laps and then 11 1'50s laps. Lowes did two 1'50s laps and eight 1'51s. Rea didn't put in his usual race simulation and ended the session with six 1'50s laps on the board and did Laverty. Sykes' tumble in the session meant he managed two 1'50s.
