The main protagonist of WorldSBK FP1 at Brno was the weather. The rain before the start of Friday Free Practice sessions made the track wet and SBK riders had to perform many laps before enjoying a drier tarmac.
In the end the fastest one was Michael Rinaldi. The young Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider took the lead at his very last try with a lap in 2’08.905 and so he was nine tenths of a second faster than Althea Racing BMW’s Loris Baz (2’09.812). Third place went to Xavi Forés (2’09.943, Barni Racing Ducati), who was followed by Yonny Hernández. The Colombian rider is back on his Pedercini Kawasaki after the visa issues that ruled him out from Donington Round and in FP1 he ranked fourth ahead of Triple M Honda’s PJ Jacobsen.
Who led the session before the last few minutes was Jonathan Rea. The three times World Champion was in first place after setting a fastest lap in 2’11.008, but as he spent the last minutes in the pits he could not improve his laptime as the track got dry. Rea ranked seventh behind also Jordi Torres (6th on his MV Agusta machine) and was followed by Alex Lowes, Marco Melandri and Tom Sykes.
Puccetti Kawasaki’s Toprak Razgatlioglu, on the podium in Race 2 at Donington Park, finished FP1 in 12th position, while UK Round King Michael van der Mark ranked 16th. In any case, the particular weather conditions faced this morning make the results of FP1 almost meaningless.
