Ducati’s Chaz Davies has drawn first blood in the opening WorldSBK free practice at Motorland Aragon, finishing ahead of stablemate Michael Rinaldi while title challenger Scott Redding was outside the top ten.
With track temperatures relatively cool, Davies was almost a second down on the lap record at 1’50.543 and only 0.058s in front of Rinaldi - who is being tipped to replace him in 2021 - on the Go Eleven version of the V4R.
Reigning champion and points leader Jonathan Rea took third with a two-tenth deficit while Alvaro Bautista crashed once and then blew a radiator hose on his way to fourth place.
Tom Sykes recovered from a popped engine to set the fifth-quickest time. He had to negotiate the mobile chicane that is Lorenzo Gabellini after his mechanics got his works S1000RR back together but managed to find a 1'50.926 on his final flying lap and that would have come down had he not run out of time.
Loris Baz was also a fast finisher in sixth place, ending on a 1'50.979 with his final effort to lead the Yamaha contingent on the supported Ten Katw R1. Works man Michael van der Mark was less than a tenth further back.
Alex Lowes put his works Kawasaki in eighth place with a 1'51.084 but was doing early work on race pace as he had another nine laps in that bracket. Old friend Leon Haslam was ninth and a tenth further back with American rookie Garrett Gerloff in tenth on a 1'51.404.
Redding put in 17 laps with a best of 1'51.439 but is clearly problem solving with 1'52s, 1'54s and 1'58s laps in his analysis.
Max Schieb put his Kawasaki in 12th ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu, Federico Caricasulo, Xavi Fores, Eugene Laverty and Marco Melandri are next along.
Top ten top speeds
1 19 A. BAUTISTA Honda CBR1000RR-R 321,4
2 33 M. MELANDRI Ducati Panigale V4 R 314,9
3 45 S. REDDING Ducati Panigale V4 R 314,0
4 60 M. VAN DER MARK Yamaha YZF R1 313,0
5 54 T. RAZGATLIOGLU Yamaha YZF R1 312,1
6 22 A. LOWES Kawasaki ZX-10RR 312,1
7 7 C. DAVIES Ducati Panigale V4 R 310,3
8 21 M. RINALDI Ducati Panigale V4 R 310,3
9 20 S. BARRIER Ducati Panigale V4 R 309,5
10 31 G. GERLOFF Yamaha YZF R1 309,5
