The top five in Superbike consisted entirely of Ducati Panigale V4 Rs. Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS) and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Go Eleven) led Iker Lecuona (Aruba Ducati), who crashed between turns 11 and 12 early in the session. The Spaniard returned to the pits with a badly damaged bike, and the Ducati technicians had to work hard to repair it before he could return to the track.
The first non-Ducati bike is Xavi Vierge's Yamaha R1, sixth fastest this afternoon. Behind him are Miguel Oliveira's BMW and Garrett Gerloff's Kawasaki. The top 10 is rounded out by Alberto Surra's Panigale (Motocorsa) and Alex Lowes' Bimota.
An encouraging 11th place was achieved by Jake Dixon with the Honda CBR1000RR-R, which showed signs of progress after tests carried out by HRC in France in mid-August, as did ROKiT BMW Motorrad and Elf Marc VDS.
12th for rookie Stefano Manzi (GYTR GRT Yamaha R1). Further back were Axel Bassani (14th on the other Bimota), Alvaro Bautista (15th on the second Barni Spark Ducati), and Danilo Petrucci (18th on a BMW). Andrea Locatelli was 19th, but his session was disrupted by a technical problem early on, forcing him to remain in the pits.
Also of note was the crash of Bahattin Sofuoglu (Yamaha Motoxracing) between turns 1 and 2, shortly after Lecuona's. The Turkish rider had to be helped by the marshals to get out of the gravel trap.
Superbike Magny-Cours – FP2 standings:
