Superbike Most FP3: Redding best placed as qualifying approaches

The Ducati rider set the best time at the end of the final free practice session, ahead of Jonathan Rea and a surprising Andrea Locatelli.

After a first day of driving partly disrupted by the weather conditions, the Superbike riders returned to the track early in the morning to try to get their hands on the Most circuit, which is hosting for the first time in its history a round of the Superbike, instead of Brno in the Czech Republic. It is true that the fog, which delayed the holding of the first free practice session, and the rain which distorted the results of the second, made it difficult yesterday to read everyone's level of performance.

Toprak Razgatlioglu thus achieved the best time at the end of the first day, while the Turk must react following the hat-trick of Jonathan Rea, his rival for the championship title, during the last round two weeks ago in Assen.

Quickest redding

But everything remains to be done today for the Yamaha rider, who is 37 points behind his Kawasaki partner and can therefore no longer afford to give up an inch of ground. For the moment, number 54 has done the job, however giving Scott Redding free rein at the start of the session.

The former MotoGP rider was at the top of the timesheet at the start of the session, improving the mark set yesterday by Razgatlioglu by almost three tenths. It was just the prelude to a cascade of improvements that occurred in the final minutes.

In fact, we had to wait until the last five minutes to see the hierarchy shake up, Razgatlioglu, Rea and Redding taking turns exchanging first place, the idea clearly being to gain a psychological advantage over one's opponent while Race 1 is looming this afternoon.

In this little game, it was ultimately the Ducati rider who had the last word. Third at the end of the first day, number 45 confirms that he will have to be counted on this weekend for victory. The Englishman is ahead of his British counterpart Rea under the checkered flag.

Locatelli beats Razgatlioglu at Yamaha

Third place went to a Yamaha rider, but not the one we might have expected: Andrea Locatelli actually beat Toprak Razgatlioglu in the final moments of the session, while Garrett Gerloff finished in the top 5.

Tom Sykes and Marvin Fritz follow in the rankings, while the top 10 is completed by Alex Lowes, regional rider Karel Hanika, and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. Beyond the top 10 we find Leon Haslam in 11th position, Álvaro Bautista and Axel Bassani. The top 15 is completed by Michael van der Mark and Chaz Davies. Finally, we can note the 20th place of Christophe Ponsson, who is making his return to competition this weekend after missing the last round in the Netherlands.

Superbike – Most – FP3 results:

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com