Rea leads Razgatlioglu in Qatar WorldSBK FP1
Full Qatar WorldSBK FP1 results
Jonathan Rea has topped the opening practice session at the final round of the 2019 World Superbike championship for Kawasaki ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu thanks to his late flying lap.
Full Qatar WorldSBK FP1 results
Jonathan Rea has topped the opening practice session at the final round of the 2019 World Superbike championship for Kawasaki ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu thanks to his late flying lap.
As the sun set on the Losail International Circuit, the newly-crowned World Superbike champion produced a 1m 58.010s on his penultimate lap of FP1 to take top spot from Puccetti Kawasaki’s Razgatlioglu who is making his final appearance for the team before moving to the Pata Yamaha squad in 2020.
The Turkish rider had been trading fastest lap times with the man he is replacing at Yamaha Alex Lowes, while the British rider was narrowly displaced to fourth on the FP1 times by team-mate Michael van der Mark who notched up a final lap to claim third overall.
But it was an encouraging session for Yamaha in Qatar with Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) and Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) putting four Iwata bikes inside the top six.
Despite a superior straight line speed on Losail’s long start/finish straight, Alvaro Bautista could only reach seventh place with his best FP1 effort on his final outing for Aruba.it Racing Ducati. He edged out team-mate Chaz Davies in eighth place, with the retiring Marco Melandri in ninth place for GRT Yamaha.
Tom Sykes completed the top 10 for BMW ahead of team-mate Markus Reiterberger with Leandro Mercado beating factory Kawasaki rider Leon Haslam into 12th place on the Orelac Racing Kawasaki.
After running inside the top 10 early on, Eugene Laverty faded to 14th spot for Team Goeleven Ducati on his last appearance for the Italian squad before heading to BMW this winter.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi secured 15th place, fresh from losing his Barni Ducati ride to Leon Camier for 2020, with the British rider directly behind him on the times for Moriwaki Althea Honda.
With Jordi Torres in 17th place for Pedercini Kawasaki, Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Honda) and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda) beat wildcard entry Dominic Schmitter with the Yamaha rider propping up the timesheet.
