Yamaha rider Jonathan Rea secures the best time in the final Superbike World Championship training session – Danilo Petrucci and Toprak Razgatlioglu within striking distance
Yamaha factory rider Jonathan Rea secured the best time in the third free practice session at the Superbike World Championship in Estoril, Portugal (to the FT3 result). The six-time world champion lapped the circuit in 1:53.126 minutes on Saturday morning, a good two-tenths of a second faster than Danilo Petrucci (Barni-Ducati).
The lap times in FT3 were far from the best time of Friday set by BMW rider Toprak Razgatlioglu in the dry in FT2. On Friday afternoon, Razgatlioglu lapped the Circuito do Estoril in 1:37.355 minutes.
The 24 WSBK riders faced difficult conditions on Saturday morning, with the circuit completely wet from overnight rain. As in Friday morning’s FP1, wet weather tires were the correct choice for the conditions.
Jonathan Rea set the best time on Saturday morning, but Danilo Petrucci and Toprak Razgatlioglu were within striking distance. Michael van der Mark (BMW) in P4 was already more than a second behind. Alvaro Bautista rounded off the top five with his factory Ducati.
Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha), Xavi Vierge (Honda), Michael Rinaldi (Motocorsa-Ducati), Nicolo Bulega (Ducati) and Remy Gardner (GRT-Yamaha) took positions six to ten in the inconclusive session.
Andrea Iannone (GoEleven-Ducati) also did not find a good feeling for his Panigale V4R in FT3 and finished 16th, almost five seconds behind. Dominique Aegerter (GRT-Yamaha) was ranked P19 on Saturday morning and was 7.759 seconds behind.
Philipp Öttl (GMT94-Yamaha) was one of five drivers who did not record a flying lap in FT3. In addition to Öttl, the two Bonovo BMW riders Scott Redding and Garrett Gerloff, Iker Lecuona (Honda) and Axel Bassani (Kawasaki) also avoided the risk of riding in the wet.