Rea remains fastest in red-flagged FP3
Full WorldSBK FP3 results from Brno
Jonathan Rea has cemented his place at the top of the times in FP3 despite the session been suspended by a red flag after Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s engine expired and dropped oil on the Brno track.
Full WorldSBK FP3 results from Brno
Jonathan Rea has cemented his place at the top of the times in FP3 despite the session been suspended by a red flag after Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s engine expired and dropped oil on the Brno track.
While longer runs were being completed in the final Friday practice session, Rinaldi’s Ducati Panigale R suffered an major engine issue on the short straight before Turn 5 which dropped oil and fluid on to the racing line. The session was instantly red flagged so marshals could produce a clean-up of the track.
After a 20-minute delay, FP3 resumed with nine minutes remaining and despite tricky track conditions after the oil spill Rea chipped away at his top time from the second session to take the best lap to a 1m 59.403s to continue to edge away from the chasing pack.
Fellow factory Kawasaki rider Tom Sykes failed to improve on his FP2 time but held on to second place, with the same applying to Marco Melandri for the Aruba.it Racing Ducati squad, while Milwaukee Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori jumped up to fourth place with his FP3 lap time gains.
Savadori’s lap in the final session saw both Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) shuffled down a spot to fifth and sixth after also failing to improve on their personal best lap times in the final session.
Maiden double winner from Donington Park Michael van der Mark secured his automatic place in Superpole 2 by taking seventh place on the combined times for Pata Yamaha as Rinaldi kept hold a top ten place despite missing the final few minutes of FP3.
Red Bull Honda’s Leon Camier and Althea BMW’s Loris Baz completed the top ten, automatically making it into Superpole 2 for qualifying, despite neither improving on their times in FP3 as Eugene Laverty on the Milwaukee Aprilia was also unable to make any lap time gains in 11th place.
Toprak Razgatlioglu, a maiden podium finisher last time out at the British round, ended the day down in 18th place after a small crash at the start of FP3 but was able to remount his Puccetti Kawasaki and return to the pits after the off.
