Saturday’s MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship kicked off with a dramatic Free Practice 3 session which was topped by Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team). The #9 topped FP2 on Friday at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve and continued that on Saturday with P1 in the final practice session for the Pirelli Portuguese Round, finishing more than two tenths clear of his rivals ahead of this afternoon’s Tissot Superpole session.
Petrucci sat out the first half of the session but was quick out of the blocks when he did hit the track, setting a fastest lap of 1’40.316s, using the SCX tyre, to claim P1 in FP3, making it two out of three Free Practice sessions he’s topped at Portimao. He was 0.254s clear of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in second, who continued his strong form, as did Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) with the #1 claiming third place. He was just 0.006s behind Lowes.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) could only manage P4 on his BMW M 1000 RR as he set a 1’40.581s. He was just 0.005s away from Bautista ahead and had a two-tenth margin to teammate Michael van der Mark directly behind, with two BMWs inside the top six. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) was another who was strong in FP3, claiming sixth place and lapping just 0.455s away from Petrucci.
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), who has been feeling under the weather this weekend, was seventh with a 1’40.896s, finishing ahead of six-time Champion Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) in eighth. Ninth place belonged to Scott Redding (Bonovo Action BMW) with Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) using his final lap to move inside the top ten.
The top six from WorldSBK FP3, full results here:
1. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) 1’40.316s
2. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.254s
3. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.260s
4. Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +0.265s
5. Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +0.449s
6. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) +0.455s
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Source: WorldSBK.com