Ducati made the loudest noise at the end of Friday, closing FP2 with a double. Session dominator, Nicolò Bulega showed great pace in this afternoon of testing, taking the best time with a time of 1’33”511thanks to which he gained four tenths of a second from his teammate Alvaro Bautista, second with only four thousandths of an advantage over Remy Gardner’s Yamaha.
Andrea Iannone follows closely behind, fourth ahead of Toprak Razgatliogluwho suffered a crash without consequences during the session, which did not allow him to go further than fifth position, seven tenths from Bulega’s reference point and with just one thousandth of an advantage over a surprising Iker Lecuona. Seventh and eighth times for the brothers Alex and Sam Lowes, followed by Dominique Aegerter and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. Just outside the Top 10 is Andrea Locatelli, ahead of a stoic Danilo Petrucci and his boxing partner Jonathan Rea. Sixteenth time for Axel Bassani, 18th for Michele Pirro, slowed down by a fall.
The FP2 ranking
Updates minute by minute
3.46pm – Checkered flag: FP2 ends with a one-two finish from the Aruba.it Racing Ducati team riders.
3.43pm – Bulega retouches his fastest lap by setting a time of 1’33″511.
3.42pm – Bautista closes the gap to second place with a time of 1’33″913.
3.41pm – Bulega continues to push, scoring three red helmets but failing to improve his best time by 35 thousandths.
3.40pm – Petrucci climbs positions, 13th. Jonathan Rea also improved, rising to eleventh place.
3.37pm – With seven minutes to go, Bulega continues to dictate the pace followed by Gardner, Iannone and Razgatlioglu, Quinto Bautista ahead of Lecuona, Lowes and Agerter.
3.35pm – Gravel excursion for Bulega, while trying to improve his reference.
3.33pm – Nineteenth time for Petrucci in 1’35″578.
3.32pm – Bulega improves on the day’s reference by posting a time of 1’33″552.
3.30pm – Bautista improves further, taking fifth place, overtaking Lecuona. Here is the ranking with a quarter of an hour to go:
3.29pm – Danilo Petrucci enters the track to face the last quarter of an hour of the session.
3.28pm – Bautista climbs to seventh position, stopping the clock at a time of 1’34″397, around six tenths of a second from Bulega’s reference.
3.24pm – Razgatlioglu crashed, ending up on the ground in Turn 16. A fall without consequences for the Turkish rider, who currently occupies fourth place in the time rankings ahead of a surprising Iker Lecuona.
3.20pm – 1’34″803 for Pirro, who climbs to 15th position.
3.18pm – Petrucci is still in the pits and is measuring his energy this weekend as he returns after the injury suffered on the cross bike.
3.16pm – Bassani recovers a few positions, rising to 12th place between Rea and Rinaldi.
3.14pm – Razgatlioglu, leader of this morning’s first round of testing, returns to the pits.
3.11pm – Slip for Andrea Locatelli in Turn 4, a short distance from the fall in Turn 5 which had Sam Lowe as the protagonist.
3.10pm – Iannone’s time was canceled and he finds himself in third place, behind Bulega and Gardner. Fourth is Razgatlioglu, who is using the new development rear brought to Misano by Pirelli, as is Bautista, currently in eighth position. Here’s the situation 10 minutes into the session.
3.06pm – 1’33.975 for Iannone, first to get under the 1’34” wall. Bulega does better, taking the lead with 32 thousandths of an advantage over the rider from Vasto.
3.04pm – Remy Gardner did better, in first position with a time of 1’34″063. Of note is the second crash of the weekend for Michele Pirro, who crashed in Turn 10.
3.03pm – The first chronometric references are starting to arrive, with Razgatlioglu taking the top spot in 1’34″768 before being beaten by Bulega and Iannone.
3.01pm – Andrea Iannone comes into action. Everyone on track except Michael van der Mark and Danilo Petrucci.
3pm – Green light in the pitlane: the 45 minute timed session of Free Practice 2 begins.
2.55pm – The sun is shining on Misano, with only 5 minutes left until the start of the session. There are currently 25°C air temperatures and 43°C on the asphalt.
2.52pm – Final adjustments for Michele Pirro before the green light, which will start FP2 in eight minutes.
The second round of Superbike free practice will start at 3pm on the Misano track. A session in which Alvaro Bautista will try to put his Ducati back in front of everyone, after finishing the morning session in sixth position behind Andrea Iannone, almost nine tenths behind the reference set by Toprak Razgatlioglu. Instead, the two Kawasaki riders Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani, who finished FP1 in second and fourth position, separated by Nicolò Bulega’s Panigale, will try to confirm their good start to the weekend.
The spotlight is also on Jonathan Rea, eighth in the first session on Friday ahead of his brand mate Remy Gardner and Ducati test rider Michele Pirro. As well as the other Italian riders Andrea Locatelli, Danilo Petrucci (returning from injury with the motocross bike) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who remained outside the Top 10 at the start of the day.
