WSBK Superbike Misano FP1: Toprak Razgatlioğlu, with forceps!

The sky is blue for this first 45-minute Superbike session in Misano, with 24° in the air and 37° on the ground, which is not the expected weather until the end of the weekend.

In terms of changes for this 5th round, we note the temporary return of Tom Sykes at BMW to replace Michael van der Mark injured, the Briton therefore left his Kawasaki Puccetti Tito Rabat. At MIE Petronas, Ryo Mizuno was called at the very last moment to replace Eric Granado.

From the first rounds, Loris Baz seems to have a problem on the back straight.

The first minutes see Andrea Locatelli enter a reference in 1'35.244 but then it's good Alvaro Bautista, the big favorite of the weekend, who posts the best time at the top of the table, in 1'34.465, ahead of Toprak Razgatlioğlu (leaving for BMW next year), Alex Lowes, Andrea Locatelli reconfirmed at Yamaha, Dominique Aegerter recently operated on for compartment syndrome, Danilo Petrucci, Scott Redding, Xavi Virgo (new swingarm), Axel Bassani, Iker Lecuona and finally, Jonathan Rhea.

A little before the end of the first quarter of an hour, Toprak Razgatlioğlu takes command in 1'34.400 and Michael Rinaldi is positioned 3rd. In the process, the latter snatches the leadership by 4/1000 in 1'34.396.

 

 

Jonathan Rhea take advantage of the second part of the session to move up to 7th position but you have to wait 13 minutes before the end of the session to see Toprak Razgatlioğlu pick up the pace in the first three sectors.

Unfortunately, the Yamaha official seemed less competitive in the last and was unable to improve his time. As a reminder, the circuit record is held by Alvaro Bautista in 1'33.328 since last year.

There are seven minutes remaining when the other drivers come out of their boxes for the final wrap-up. Toprak Razgatlioğlu is once again the fastest in the first three sectors but, once again, loses its advantage in the last sector, and even gets a heat in the process.

 

 

Two minutes before the end of the session, Garrett Gerloff jumped from 17th to 7th place, then Toprak Razgatlioğlu once again put his work back to work, and made one last attempt, with once again the first three sectors lit in red, and, finally, the best time in 1'34.154!

 

WorldSBK Superbike FP1 results at Misano:

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com