Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx) in Donington Park – the Turk extended his contract with the Yamaha factory team for two years before the Donington weekend and will not switch to MotoGP. If it stays dry, he is perhaps the most dangerous opponent of the World Cup leader in the fourth round of England.

Kawasaki and Yamaha top on Friday – all BMW riders again modest

In FP1 on Friday morning, the BMW drivers had a chaotic start in Donington Park. First, Michael van der Mark missed turn 11 (called Melbourne Loop) when braking and drove into the gravel. A little later, Tom Sykes fell in the same place. The worst of the first free practice was for the notorious unlucky fellow of WorldSBK. There were major problems with Eugene Laverty’s RC Squadra Corse team, whereupon the Northern Irishman had to watch the entire session from the pit lane due to technical problems with his BMW M-1000RR and was only briefly on the track once, but without a timed lap to accomplish. Jonas Folger in FP1, but the German lost almost 2 seconds in the best time. Unimpressed by such problems with his rivals, Jonathan Rea set a time of 1’27.841 minutes that was only beaten by Toprak shortly before the end. The Turk’s time was cancelled a little later, and his Yamaha brand colleague also lost the supposedly third-best lap in FP1 in the same way.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) should be the man to beat in the race. Should it be wet, the task for his opponents is likely to be even more difficult than in the dry, as he had outclassed all competitors in Donington two years ago in the rain.

The second free practice – Second Sykes crash right at the beginning
While the weekend forecast predicts rain with a 90 percent probability, it remained dry on Friday. Kohta Nozane stayed in the pits in FP2 because he was declared unfit for the rest of the action with a hairline fracture in his middle finger on his right hand. The brave Japanese had tried it on Friday morning, but it made no sense, and he had simply lost too much time. As in FP1, Tom Sykes was again the rider with the first crash, this time shortly after the start in turn 6. After the first 10 minutes, Jonathan Rea was in the lead again, this time ahead of his Kawasaki team-mate Alex Lowes and Toprak, on the best Yamaha. After his early crash, Tom Sykes only had 10 minutes left to hit the track again. Repairing his M-1000RR after its early crash had cost him almost all of FP2.

Visiting the pit of Eugene Laverty’s RC Squadra Corse team – after unsolvable problems in FP1, the popular Northern Irishman was able to ride his BMW again in the afternoon’s second free practice session.

The strongest riders on Friday
In addition to Jonathan Rea, these were above all his Kawasaki team-mate Alex Lowes, the Yamaha riders Garrett Gerloff and Toprak Razgatlioglu, as well as Scott Redding and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. In addition, Leon Haslam on the best Honda, Lucas Mahias as the fastest real privateer, who stayed within a second of the Texan’s best time on the Yamaha in the second practice session. In particular, all BMW drivers, Tito Rabat, Alvaro Bautista and Andrea Locatelli, however, seem to have some catching up to do. But you shouldn’t forget that, in contrast to MotoGP, the times on Friday have little relevance. It is not until Saturday morning at 11 a.m. local time that the Superpole is about the sausage for the first time, i.e. about the starting grid and then rain is announced.

The result of FP2 at Donington Park

P, No, Rider, Bike, Time(,Gap), km/h
1, 31, GERLOFF Garrett, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’27.524, , 268
2, 1, REA Jonathan, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’27.853, 0.329, 270
3, 54, RAZGATLIOGLU Toprak, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’28.048, 0.524, 269
4, 22, LOWES Alex, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’28.131, 0.607, 271
5, 45, REDDING Scott, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’28.150, 0.626, 271
6, 21, RINALDI Michael Ruben, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’28.324, 0.800, 274
7, 91, HASLAM Leon, Honda CBR1000 RR-R, 1’28.395, 0.871, 270
8, 44, MAHIAS Lucas, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’28.462, 0.938, 264
9, 60, VAN DER MARK Michael, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’28.549, 1.025, 270
10, 55, LOCATELLI Andrea, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’28.594, 1.070, 270
11, 66, SYKES Tom, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’28.669, 1.145, 268
12, 7, DAVIES Chaz, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’29.064, 1.540, 268
13, 47, BASSANI Axel, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’29.359, 1.835, 270
14, 53, RABAT Tito, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’29.414, 1.890, 272
15, 19, BAUTISTA Alvaro, Honda CBR1000 RR-R, 1’29.568, 2.044, 272
16, 32, VINALES Isaac, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’29.780, 2.256, 266
17, 12, MOSSEY Luke, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’29.975, 2.451, 262
18, 50, LAVERTY Eugene, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’30.088, 2.564, 268
19, 94, FOLGER Jonas, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’30.218, 2.694, 263
20, 23, PONSSON Christophe, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’30.253, 2.729, 265
21, 84, CRESSON Loris, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’31.403, 3.879, 259

Stand in the WorldSBK world championships

The “Donington Park Circuit”

The course, located in the immediate vicinity of East Midland Airport, is 4,023 kilometres (2.49 miles) long. With 7 right and 5 left turns, the longest start-finish straight is just 550 meters long.

WorldSBK Donington Park schedule (WSBK only, no WSSP)

DayLocal timeMEZSession
Fr, 2. Jul10:30 – 11:1511:30 – 12:15WorldSBK – FP1
Fr, 2. Jul15:00 – 15:4516:00 – 16:45WorldSBK – FP2
Sa, 3. Jul09:00 – 09:3010:00 – 10:30WorldSBK – FP3
Sa, 3. Jul11:10 – 11:2512:10 – 12:25Superpole
Sa, 3. Jul14:0015:00Race 1 WorldSBK
Su, 4. Jul09:00 – 09:1510:00 – 10:15Warm-Up
Su, 4. Jul11:0012:00Superpole Race WSBK
Su, 4. Jul14:0015:00Race 2 WorldSBK

>WSBK Donington Preview see separate report on this page.

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).