Saturday morning’s MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship kicked off with a 30-minute Free Practice 3 as Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) topped the times ahead of teammate Alvaro Bautista in second, with very little between the pair. It sets up the rest of the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round nicely with the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” ready for this afternoon’s Tissot Superpole session and Race 1.
Bulega’s rapid pace was shown yesterday, and he continued that on Saturday morning as he posted a 1’33.114s, lapping a tenth away from the Tissot Superpole lap record set last year by Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). The #1 was languishing down the order in FP3 before surging up the order in the final 10 minutes, finishing 0.011s behind his teammate. Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) continues to impress as he claimed third, two tenths off Bulega’s pace.
Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven), sporting a special helmet for Saturday’s action, was fourth with a 1’33.343s, just 0.011s behind Gardner. Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was fifth after he set the pace on Friday morning with ‘El Turco’ also pulling off a mega save in FP3. Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) showed strong pace as he claimed sixth, with both GRT Yamaha riders inside the top six.
Another rider who surged up the order compared to yesterday was Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) with the American claiming seventh, less than a tenth away from the Swiss rider. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was eighth with Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in ninth and Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) completing the top ten.
The top six from WorldSBK FP3, full results here:
1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’33.114s
2. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.011s
3. Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +0.218s
4. Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven) +0.229s
5. Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +0.255s
6. Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +0.457s
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Source: WorldSBK.com