Pata Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu completed Friday in control at Catalunya after setting the fastest time of the day in FP2.
His 1’42.369 effort held off championship rival Jonathan Rea in the overall standings with Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Andrea Locatelli sitting second and third in the afternoon session.
Locatelli led the way for FP2 as WorldSBK returned to the Barcelona circuit. Rea running second at his team’s home track with Toprak Razgatlioglu and Scott Redding challenging from third and fourth.
Rinaldi took over as the session developed with Tom Sykes and Alex Lowes battling for sixth and seventh.
Razgatlioglu was on a charge with 18 minutes remaining, the Pata Yamaha topping both session and overall times thanks to a 1’42.369 to sit ahead of his title rival as their battle deepened. Alvaro Bautista, Garrett Gerloff and Axel Bassani completing the top 10.
The final push saw Locatelli suffer a late crash seven minutes before the end of the day at the final corner, Bautista doing similar at turn 14 four minutes later. Honda’s second rider, Leon Haslam improving in the final seconds to claim eighth from his teammate at the flag.
