Britain’s Scott Redding has topped the Friday WorldSBK timesheets at Estoril by less than a tenth of a second from Toprak Razgatlioglu with Loris Baz bagging third despite a crash.
Redding set a 1’36.886 with his final lap to nudge the Turkish Yamaha rider into second place while Baz launched his R1 into the weeds and had to sit in the garage for 20 minutes while his team made adjustments.
Rea was fourth on day one at this new track for most WorldSBK riders, and all WorldSBK bikes, with his team-mate Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) fifth and fast American rookie rider Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) sixth.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was seventh but surprise package Jonas Folger (Bonovo Action by MGM Racing Yamaha) was a strong eighth in only his second WorldSBK weekend ever.
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was ninth and Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) top Fireblade rider in tenth place.
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