WSBK Aragon Superbike FP1: Jonathan Rea leaves strong, Honda what a missile!

The Cannibal returns to the Kawasaki test track. Ultra fast Honda in a straight line, Petrucci on the lookout: third time.

About Paolo Gozzi / Corsedimoto.com

The Superbike Cannibal is back: Jonathan Rhea has won nine times at Aragon, but above all it is Kawasaki's test track. It is therefore not surprising that the 35-year-old Northern Irishman finished the first tests ahead of everyone, in 1'50″309. We are still far from record references. Both belong to Toprak Razgatlioglu : Superpole record 1'48″267 while in the race the time to beat will be 1'49″375, both dating back to last year. The ranking is interesting: immediately behind are Iker Lecuona with the supersonic Honda in the straight and Danilo Petrucci closer and closer to the summit, despite some small technical setbacks at the start of the session.

Toprak and Bautista remain behind

Slow start (so to speak…) for the two drivers competing for the World Championship. The challenger Toprak Razgatlioglu with Yamaha closed the session at 736 thousandths of Jonathan Rhea. However, it must be considered that the Turk and his team did not participate in the two days of testing at the end of August, so a slight delay in development compared to his rivals was to be expected. Alvaro Bautista is only eighth, but Ducati also gives the impression of not having revealed its cards yet. Remember that the Spaniard can manage a 57-point lead, with three rounds (nine races) remaining. Good start for Michael Rinaldi, fifth: here the native of Rimini celebrated his first goal in the 2020 World Cup.

Honda missile straight ahead

Motorland is also the test track for the Honda HRC, it is here that last month the new prototype chassis introduced thanks to the regulatory super concession was approved. The fact that the Fireblade is spooky on the straight isn't something we're finding out today either. On this one there's a 1050 meter straight, so a great test bed for maximum speeds. Virgin et lecuona got exactly the same value, 326,3. The Honda is also faster than the Ducati Panigale V4 in a straight line, given that Baptist achieved 321,4. Behind are the BMW of gerloff (320,5) and Rea's Kawasaki (319,5). The Ninja has also taken a big step forward, and for the moment it is ahead of the Yamaha: the 317,6 km/h of Soil.

Bautista comments: “Rea at Yamaha? He has a lot of courage. »

Alvaro Bautista commented on the two big moves in the Superbike 24 market, namely Soil at BMW and Jonathan Rea at Yamaha. » Toprak raced for four years at Yamaha and Rea at Kawasaki for nine years, they know that the two manufacturers will not introduce radical technical innovations, so for them, a change of scenery is synonymous with motivation "  commented the World Champion. “ If they had told me, I wouldn't have believed them. The bravest of the two is Rea: signing for two years with Yamaha means that at 35 he is still very hungry, he wants to continue winning. » 

The second session will take place at 15:00 p.m.

Ranking : WordSBK.com

Read the original article on Corsedimoto.com
Paolo Gozzi