Aragon WorldSBK Friday Practice | Alvaro Bautista ends day leading Ducati 1-2-3

09/22/2023 10:07 AM

Alvaro Bautista, Aruba Racing, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 2023 WorldSBK, Aragon, action [Gold & Goose]

Alvaro Bautista overcame a low key start to Round 10 of the 2023 WorldSBK Championship at Motorland Aragon to end the first day of free practice atop the timesheets.

The champion-elect comes into his home event clasping a comfortable 57 point lead over Toprak Razgatlioglu in the overall standings with three events and nine races remaining.

Moreover, the odds are stacked largely in Bautista's favour at Aragon especially with the Ducati Panigale V4 R enjoying a particularly strong record at the Alcaniz venue, while Razgatlioglu has often identified it as his weakest circuit.

It's a trend that played to form come the end of Friday free practice as Bautista bounced to the summit of the combined order with a best of 1m 49.649secs, proving just under a tenth quicker than Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

The Italian, who achieved his first-ever WorldSBK win at Aragon aboard the Go Eleven Ducati in 2019, looked in good shape once again as he pitches to teams for a 2024 WorldSBK ride having been axed from the Aruba Ducati line-up.

Danilo Petrucci continued the Ducati theme up top aboard the satellite Barni machine with the third best time, two tenths off Bautista, while Jonathan Rea - fastest in FP1 - was fourth quickest as the only other rider to dip below 1m 50secs.

Despite a fall late on in FP2, Iker Lecuona ended a positive Friday with the fifth quickest time of the day, just ahead of Bonovo BMW's Garrett Gerloff, the American far and away the best of the M 1000 RR contingent compared with team-mates Loris Baz, Michael van der Mark and Scott Redding in 13th, 14th and 15th respectively.

Yamaha found itself in the unusual position of being the slowest of the five manufacturers with Razgatlioglu it's best-placed representative in seventh, though he was followed closely by Dominique Aegerter and Andrea Locatelli in eighth and ninth. Xavi Vierge completed the top ten.

2023 Aragon WorldSBK \| Motorland Aragon \| Friday Practice Results\| Round 10 of 12
Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Motorcycle	Lap Time
1	Alvaro Bautista	🇪🇸	Aruba Ducati	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 49.649
2	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	🇮🇹	Aruba Ducati	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 49.726
3	Danilo Petrucci	🇮🇹	Barni Spark Racing	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 49.825
4	Jonathan Rea	🇬🇧	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 49.970
5	Iker Lecuona	🇪🇸	Team HRC	Honda CBR1000RR-R	1m 50.448
6	Garrett Gerloff	🇺🇲	Bonovo Racing	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 50.454
7	Toprak Razgatlioglu	🇹🇷	Pata Crescent Racing	Yamaha R1	1m 50.757
8	Dominique Aegerter	🇨🇭	GYTR GRT	Yamaha R1	1m 50.960
9	Andrea Locatelli	🇮🇹	Pata Crescent Racing	Yamaha R1	1m 51.012
10	Xavi Vierge	🇪🇸	Team HRC	Honda CBR1000RR-R	1m 51.096
11	Philipp Oettl	🇩🇪	Go Eleven	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 51.115
12	Remy Gardner	🇦🇺	GYTR GRT	Yamaha R1	1m 51.155
13	Loris Baz	🇫🇷	Bonovo Racing	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 51.208
14	Michael van der Mark	🇳🇱	BMW Motorrad WorldSBK	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 51.220
15	Scott Redding	🇬🇧	BMW Motorrad WorldSBK	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 51.255
16	Florian Marino	🇫🇷	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 51.379
17	Lorenzo Baldassarri	🇮🇹	GMT 94	Yamaha R1	1m 51.931
18	Tito Rabat	🇪🇸	Puccetti Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 51.971
19	Axel Bassani	🇮🇹	Motocorsa Racing	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 51.976
20	Bradley Ray	🇬🇧	Motoxracing	Yamaha R1	1m 52.253
21	Gabriele Ruiu	🇮🇹	B-Max Racing	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 52.603
22	Hafizh Syahrin	🇲🇾	MIE Racing	Honda CBR1000RR-R	1m 52.622
23	Isaac Vinales	🇪🇸	TPR by Vinales Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 52.698
24	Eric Granado	🇧🇷	MIE Racing	Honda CBR1000RR-R	1m 53.238
25	Oliver Konig	🇨🇿	Orelac Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 53.859

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