Catalunya World Superbike FP3 Results: Bautista destroys the competition

Results from Free Practice 3, round four of the 2023 World Superbike Championship in Catalunya, Spain.

06 May 2023

Alvaro Bautista, Ducati WorldSBK Catalunya 2023

Alvaro Bautista has re-enforced his status as favourite heading into the opening Catalunya World Superbike race following a dominant showing in FP3.

With teammate Bautista returning to pit lane after an installation lap, Michael Ruben Rinaldi took full advantage to set the pace at the beginning of FP3.

That was before Garrett Gerloff, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Axel Bassani all jumped ahead of the Italian.

Gerloff broke into the 1m 41s barrier for the first time this weekend, while Razgatlioglu joined him in setting a sub 1m 42s time.

But Rinaldi, who was the main challenger to Bautista on day-one, responded with a time of 1:41.588s to go fastest.

Trying to overtake Andrea Locatelli into turn one, Danilo Petrucci had a scary moment on the front-end of his Ducati as it snaked and shaked its way into the corner before the Italian released the brake to avoid crashing.

After struggling during FP2, Rea and Kawasaki found themselves in trouble once again as the six-time world champion was only seventh - +0.561s down on Rinaldi.

Keen to set a time attack ahead of qualifying, Xavi Vierge moved up from 20th to P3 after coming close to unseeding Rinaldi at the head of the leaderboard.

Then came a stunning lap time from Bautista as the reigning world champion broke into the mid 1m 40s bracket.

Bautista’s time was close to a second clear of Locatelli in second, while Bassani’s FP3 ended with a crash at turn five.

2023 World Superbike Catalunya, Spain - Free Practice (3) Results
Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Time
1	Alvaro Bautista	SPA	Aruba.It Racing Ducati	1:40.573s
2	Andrea Locatelli	ITA	Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK	+0.967s
3	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	ITA	Aruba.It Racing Ducati	+1.015s
4	Garrett Gerloff	USA	Bonovo Action BMW	+1.049s
5	Xavi Vierge	SPA	Team HRC WorldSBK	+1.104s
6	Axel Bassani	ITA	Motocorsa Ducati	+1.125s
7	Jonathan Rea	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK	+1.283s
8	Toprak Razgatlioglu	TUR	Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK	+1.309s
9	Remy Gardner	AUS	GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team	+1.518s
10	Scott Redding	GBR	ROKIT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	+1.541s
11	Iker Lecuona	SPA	Team HRC WorldSBK	+1,607s
12	Danilo Petrucci	ITA	Barni Spark Racing Team	+1.641s
13	Dominique Aegerter	SWI	GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team	+1.804s
14	Bradley Ray	GBR	Motoxracing Yamaha WorldSBK Team	+1.838s
15	Alex Lowes	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK	+1.996s
16	Philipp Oettl	GER	GoEleven Ducati	+2.276s
17	Hafizh Syahrin	MAL	PETRONAS MIE Racing HONDA Racing	+2.489s
18	Lorenzo Baldassarri	ITA	GMT94 Yamaha	+2.831s
19	Oliver Konig	CZE	Orelac Racing Kawasaki	+2.959s
20	Loris Baz	FRA	Bonovo Action BMW	+2.973s
21	Ivo Lopes	POR	ROKIT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team	+3.046s
22	Eric Granado	BRA	PETRONAS MIE Racing HONDA Racing	+3.069s
23	Tom Sykes	GBR	Puccetti Kawasaki	+3.240s
24	Isaac Vinales	SPA	TPR by Vinales Racing	+3.441s
25	Gabriele Ruiu	ITA	Bmax Racing	+4.935s

Catalunya World Superbike records

Lap record - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati 1:41.135s

2022 Race Winners

Race 1 - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati

Superpole Race - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati

Race 2 - Alvaro Bautista SPA Aruba.it Ducati

One of his best circuits on the calendar, Gerloff remained the fastest BMW rider come the end of FP3, something that’s usually been said about Scott Redding in 2023.

A technical issue at the beginning of FP3 saw Alex Lowes reduced to just a handful of laps at the end of the 30-minute session.

Weekend schedule (UK time)

Friday

Free Practice 1 - 09:30-10:15

Free Practice 2 - 14:00-14:45

Saturday

Free Practice 3 - 08:00-08:30

Superpole - 10:10-10:25

Race 1 - 13:00

Sunday

Warm-up - 08:00-08:15

Superpole Race -10:00