Bautista fights back, Rea retains top spot overall

Full FP2 and combined WorldSBK results from Portimao

Alvaro Bautista has set the fastest lap in FP2 at Portimao but can’t stop Jonathan Rea from topping the overall times on Friday practice as the hotter temperatures restrain lap times.

Bautista fights back, Rea retains top spot overall

Full FP2 and combined WorldSBK results from Portimao

Alvaro Bautista has set the fastest lap in FP2 at Portimao but can’t stop Jonathan Rea from topping the overall times on Friday practice as the hotter temperatures restrain lap times.

The Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider’s 1m 42.334s was enough to take top spot in the afternoon session but with conditions proving trickier to improve overall none of the front-runners beat their best efforts from the morning session.

That gave Rea the headline-grabbing time of 1m 41.931s to edge World Superbike title rival by 0.078s from Bautista.

Rea also held on to second spot in FP2 for Kawasaki ahead of GRT Yamaha’s Sandro Cortese and Puccetti Kawaski’s Toprak Razgatlioglu who continues to impress at Portimao.

Chaz Davies surged to fifth in the afternoon session for the factory Ducati squad to retain a top 10 spot overall.

Alex Lowes grabbed sixth place in FP2 for Pata Yamaha ahead of Tom Sykes who bounced back from an early morning off for BMW. Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), Markus Reiterberger (BMW) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Ducati) rounded out the top 10 but failed to improve on their respective FP1 times.

Michael van der Mark dropped to P11 for Pata Yamaha but kept in front of Leon Haslam on the factory Kawasaki with Jordi Torres (Orelac Kawasaki) who was a spot further back.

With Eugene Laverty in 14th place for Team Goeleven Ducati, Leandro Mercado grabbed 15th place for Orelac Racing Kawasaki and Marco Melandri in 16th place for GRT Yamaha.

Takumi Takahashi continued to lead the Honda charge down in 17th spot but ahead of wildcard Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Ducati), Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) and Alessandro Delbianco (Honda).

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