An old acquaintance in the WorldSSP 600 box – his grey hair didn’t prevent the record world champion in the middle category from setting a sensationally strong time when he got back on the Kawasaki ZX-6R for a day.

Jonathan Rea fastest ahead of Rinaldi – Razgatlioglu with difficulty

The reigning world champion showed a solid performance and improved significantly after P3 in the first free practice in FP2 in the afternoon. In the end, the Kawasaki driver was four tenths faster than the world championship leader. In between, in second position after Friday, is Ducati man Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who has been clearly on the upswing since Barcelona. As fourth fastest of the day, Leon Haslam again showed a very strong performance and P6 of HRC team-mate Alvaro Bautista behind Ducati ace Scott Redding proves the upward trend of Honda. While Tom Sykes is absent after his violent crash in Barcelona, ​​he will be replaced by Eugene Laverty, who has been without a team since Assen. His hobby team initially only said goodbye for the race in the Netherlands with dubious reasons, but has never been seen in the Paddock since then. While the Northern Irishman was at least in P14, BMW team-mate Michael van der Mark was only four places ahead. Meanwhile, despite a lot of self-praise and pompous hospitality from Honda, the blue-whites are being humiliated more and more often, not to mention the three top brands Kawasaki, Ducati and Yamaha.

Jonas Folger in the Bonovo Action BMW Box – the German is experiencing a disappointing rookie season in the WSBK and only in FP1 did he experience a brief ray of hope, but after that in FP2 he was again far below expectations.

Chaz Davies resigns – Loris Baz replaces Jerez

Not surprisingly, the Welshman announced his retirement from racing just before the weekend in Andalusia. His results since 2019 have been too changeable to be considered a permanent top driver. After only a few glimpses of light with the highlight as second in Estoril, Davies is currently only in twelfth intermediate place in the World Cup. Despite factory support from Ducati, this was too little at GoEleven compared to its predecessor Rinaldi to be able to build on. Too many crashes shaped his season this year, which of course, with his resignation, frees up an interesting place again, which various pilots should be interested in. While Moto2 man Nicolo Bulega is coming to the WorldSSP for Ducati, the current replacement for Chaz in the person of Frenchman Loris Baz is one of the riders who would like to return to the WSBK. It is quite possible that he will be nominated as the successor to Davies in the Ducati customer team. With Chaz Davies, the Superbike World Championship has lost one of its strongest representatives in the last decade and a half. The man from Wales was, along with “Nitro Nori” Haga, the undisputed strongest rider, who never won a World Championship title in WorldSBK, but at least Supersport 600 World Champion 2011 on Yamaha.

Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) in the gravel trap of Turn 11 – the fast Spaniard got off lightly shortly before the end of FP2, while his bike rolled over several times and hardly much of it was usable.

The FP2 in numbers – Toprak on P7 only

P, No, Rider, Bike, Time(,Gap), km/h, Laps
1, 1, REA Jonathan, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’39.671, , 265, 20
2, 21, RINALDI Michael Ruben, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’40.070, 0.399, 266, 20
3, 91, HASLAM Leon, Honda CBR1000 RR-R, 1’40.328, 0.657, 269, 17
4, 45, REDDING Scott, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’40.342, 0.671, 270, 23
5, 19, BAUTISTA Alvaro, Honda CBR1000 RR-R, 1’40.349, 0.678, 274, 15
6, 22, LOWES Alex, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’40.352, 0.681, 268, 16
7, 54, RAZGATLIOGLU Toprak, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’40.353, 0.682, 269, 19
8, 55, LOCATELLI Andrea, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’40.601, 0.930, 266, 22
9, 31, GERLOFF Garrett, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’40.745, 1.074, 264, 19
10, 60, VAN DER MARK Michael, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’40.858, 1.187, 267, 20
11, 47, BASSANI Axel, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’40.897, 1.226, 267, 21
12, 11, BAZ Loris, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’41.138, 1.467, 268, 23
13, 50, LAVERTY Eugene, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’41.197, 1.526, 269, 19
14, 32, VINALES Isaac, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’41.197, 1.526, 264, 16
15, 36, MERCADO Leandro, Honda CBR1000 RR-R, 1’41.233, 1.562, 265, 20
16, 23, PONSSON Christophe, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’41.336, 1.665, 262, 14
17, 44, MAHIAS Lucas, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’41.375, 1.704, 264, 17
18, 94, FOLGER Jonas, BMW M 1000 RR, 1’41.522, 1.851, 267, 19
19, 17, FRITZ Marvin, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’41.630, 1.959, 260, 17
20, 76, CAVALIERI Samuele, Ducati Panigale V4 R, 1’41.841, 2.170, 265, 21
21, 9, MANTOVANI Andrea, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’42.044, 2.373, 260, 21
22, 3, NOZANE Kohta, Yamaha YZF R1, 1’42.121, 2.450, 260, 9
23, 84, CRESSON Loris, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’42.282, 2.611, 260, 18
24, 83, EPIS Lachlan, Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 1’44.376, 4.705, 254, 16

The WorldSSP 600 FP2 in numbers – Kenan like Toprak on P7

P, No, Rider, Bike, Time(,Gap), km/h, Laps
1, 77, AEGERTER Dominique, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.455, , 236, 20
2, 5, OETTL Philipp, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’42.509, 0.054, 237, 21
3, 4, ODENDAAL Steven, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.742, 0.287, 237, 19
4, 66, TUULI Niki, MV Agusta F3 675, 1’42.789, 0.334, 233, 16
5, 81, GONZALEZ Manuel, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’42.901, 0.446, 237, 19
6, 21, KRUMMENACHER Randy, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.027, 0.572, 233, 16
7, 54, SOFUOGLU Kenan, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’43.095, 0.640, 237, 9
8, 3, DE ROSA Raffaele, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’43.118, 0.663, 235, 17
9, 61, ONCU Can Alexander, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’43.131, 0.676, 234, 20
10, 62, MANZI Stefano, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.152, 0.697, 233, 22
11, 94, CARICASULO Federico, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.240, 0.785, 239, 23
12, 16, CLUZEL Jules, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.413, 0.958, 238, 19
13, 56, SEBESTYEN Peter, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.552, 1.097, 239, 19
14, 25, BRENNER Marcel, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.625, 1.170, 229, 20
15, 28, VAN STRAALEN Glenn, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.707, 1.252, 236, 21
16, 40, ORRADRE Unai, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’43.804, 1.349, 239, 20
17, 22, FULIGNI Federico, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.014, 1.559, 231, 19
18, 95, TAKALA Vertti, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.024, 1.569, 233, 21
19, 34, MANFREDI Kevin, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.068, 1.613, 232, 17
20, 70, ALCOBA Marc, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.069, 1.614, 235, 12
21, 71, BERGMAN Christoffer, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.175, 1.720, 237, 18
22, 38, SOOMER Hannes, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.187, 1.732, 233, 18
23, 55, HENDRA PRATAMA Galang, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.578, 2.123, 236, 19
24, 84, FABRIZIO Michel, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’44.684, 2.229, 236, 11
25, 96, SANCHIS MARTINEZ David, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.741, 2.286, 235, 16
26, 6, HERRERA Maria, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’44.929, 2.474, 238, 16
27, 45, KAWASAKI Shogo, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’45.308, 2.853, 233, 21
28, 92, VAN EERDE Bill, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’45.311, 2.856, 233, 19
29, 24, TACCINI Leonardo, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1’45.360, 2.905, 237, 19
30, 69, MONTERO HUERTA Eduardo, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’45.586, 3.131, 230, 20
31, 42, FROSSARD Stephane, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’45.663, 3.208, 233, 21
32, 26, VUGRINEC Martin, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’45.687, 3.232, 228, 7
33, 2, MONTELLA Luigi, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’45.805, 3.350, 235, 19
34, 50, VOSTATEK Ondrej, Yamaha YZF R6, 1’45.817, 3.362, 228, 18

The current World Championship status in the WorldSBK

The current World Championship status in the WSSP 600

The schedule for the Andalusian round in Jerez de la Frontera

>WSBK Jerez for a preview, see separate report on this page.

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