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Phillip Island WSBK: Rea quickest for Kawasaki in Friday practice

Jonathan Rea led the way for Kawasaki in Friday practice for the World Superbike Championship finale at Phillip Island, as the series returned to Australia for the first time in three years.

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WSBK

Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WSBK

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Rea topped the times in both 45-minute sessions on Friday, with a late effort of 1m31.127s in the closing minutes of FP2 putting him at the head of the combined order by 0.105s.

Newly-crowned WSBK champion Alvaro Bautista was Rea’s closest challenger in both sessions and, after finishing just 0.022s adrift of the Kawasaki star during the morning session, he ended the day a tenth off the pace despite improving his laptime to 1m31.232s.

The day was headlined by an unusual crash for Bautista in FP1, the Spanish rider losing the front-end of his Ducati into Turn 4 while being followed by the Yamaha of Toprak Razgatlioglu. Bautista was able to return to the pits but he spent the rest of the session in the garage, not returning to the track until FP2 later in the afternoon.

Alex Lowes backed up the pace of Rea by setting the third-fastest time on the sister Kawasaki, a 1m31.416s, while 2021 champion Razgatlioglu was more than half a second down in fourth ahead of Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli.

Replacing the injured Iker Lecuona, Suzuka 8 Hours winner Tetsuta Nagashima made a strong impression on his first day in the WSBK paddock as he led Honda’s charge in FP2, going sixth-fastest with a time of 1m31.869s.

Nagashima easily outpaced Honda incumbent Xavi Vierge, who had a low-key day on the Fireblade and finished both sessions in the lower half of the timesheets.

Philipp Oettl was the best independent rider on the GoEleven Ducati in seventh, beating the GRT Yamaha of Garrett Gerloff to the honour, while the top 10 was rounded out by BMW’s Scott Redding and Ducati rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Phillip Island WSBK - FP2 results:

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 1'31.127  
2 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 1'31.232 0.105
3 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 1'31.416 0.289
4 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 1'31.670 0.543
5 Italy Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 1'31.721 0.594
6 Japan Tetsuta Nagashima Honda 1'31.869 0.742
7 Germany Philipp Oettli Ducati 1'31.996 0.869
8 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 1'32.058 0.931
9 United Kingdom Scott Redding BMW 1'32.249 1.122
10 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 1'32.329 1.202

Phillip Island WSBK - FP1 results:

Cla Rider Bike Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 1'31.284  
2 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 1'31.306 0.022
3 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 1'31.604 0.320
4 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 1'31.610 0.326
5 Italy Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 1'32.464 1.180
6 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 1'32.484 1.200
7 Germany Philipp Oettli Ducati 1'32.666 1.382
8 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 1'32.816 1.532
9 Japan Tetsuta Nagashima Honda 1'32.964 1.680
10 Spain Xavi Vierge Honda 1'32.974 1.690

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