Alvaro Bautista fastest from Toprak Razgatlioglu ahead of qualifying

Normal service was resumed at Donington Park as Alvaro Bautista led the way in Free Practice 3 of the British WorldSBK round.

Robert Jones

01 Jul 2023

Alvaro Bautista, Ducati WorldSBK Donington Park 2023

While there was no rain at the beginning of FP3, the track was still wet following overnight rain which resulted in lap times being a long way off Jonathan Rea’s best time from FP1.

Alvaro Bautista was one of the first riders to head out on circuit, alongside fellow Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci who was following the world champion.

Adjusting very quickly to the conditions, Toprak Razgatlioglu signalled his intent as he went close to two seconds clear of Petrucci.

After seeing Bautista and Petrucci move back ahead of him, Razgatlioglu looked set to move the benchmark time further forward before losing out in sector four.

Like on Friday, Rea was in no rush to get out on circuit as he remained in pit lane along with teammate Alex Lowes.

Also choosing to sit out the early stages were the likes of Axel Bassani, Scott Redding and Tom Sykes.

Meanwhile, Bautista improved by nearly a second in order to three tenths between himself and Petrucci.

As Rea finally took to the track with 18 minutes remaining, Bautista was setting a very strong pace as he found another four tenths on his latest effort.

One of the strongest riders in damp conditions, Rea took over at the top on just his third flying lap before finding another 1.1 seconds on his next lap.

A time of 1:30.195s put him 1.2 seconds clear of Bautista, however, Andrea Locatelli managed to get within half a second after following the Kawasaki rider.

Locatelli then put his name atop the leaderboard after breaking the 1m 30s barrier for the first time in FP3.

Over a tenth down with one sector to go, Rea produced a brilliant end to the lap in order to overhaul Locatelli by just -0.007s.

Jonathan Rea, British WorldSBK, Donington Park, 30 June

Although Rea improved again on his next lap, it wasn’t enough to retain top spot as Lowes managed to pip the six-time world champion.

A first 1m 28s lap of the session then saw Rea regain top spot ahead of Lowes, while Locatelli closed in by going third - three tenths off.

After swapping position on-track, Lowes fought back again to take top spot away from Rea.

Leading the way early on before Kawasaki showed their hand, Razgatlioglu was determined to end the session on top as he went fastest with a time of 1:28.320s.

However, Razgatlioglu’s time was then shattered by Bautista as the Ducati rider went half a second clear of the Turkish star.

There was a big crash for Oliver Konig late on, which left his Kawasaki machine completely wrecked.

Razgatlioglu improved on his next lap but it wasn’t enough to jump ahead of Bautista, who finished -0.144s clear.