2020 WorldSBK Catalunya - Free Practice Resulཧts (1)

Toprak Razgatlioglu topped the first ever official timed WorldSBK sess﷽ion to take place at the Circuit de Ba🐻rcelona-Catalunya as he headed up a Yamaha 1-2-3 in FP1.

Though a recognisable and well used circuit across two and four wheels, this is the first time the venue - located in Granollers, aroun🦩d 30 miles from Barcelona - has ever been included on the WorldSBK cal𓆉endar.

Even so, the venue is better kn💝own to some than others with certain manufacturers previously testing here, including Yamaha, who locked out the top three with Razgatlioglu edging out Crescent Racing team-mate Michael van der Mark.

However, running them closely - only three tenths off the top spot - was Garrett Gerloff, the American rookie taking advantage of the venue being fairly new to bo🐼🦄th himself and his rivals to fire his GRT Junior Yamaha R1 up to third place.

The late lap unseated Alvaro Bautista, who was per🌟ched at the top of the timesheets for the majority o♔f the session before Yamaha’s late gains shuffled him down to fourth place on the Honda.

Championship leader Jonathan Rea maintained a relatively low profile and completed limited laps but improved late on to 🧸go fifth best on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR, ahead of Aragon standout Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Alex Lowes on the second of the facto👍ry Kawasakis.

Tom Sykes was the highest-placed BMW rider in eiꦗghth position, heading off the remaining top ten dwellers of Scott Redding and Loris Baz.

Elsewhere, ex-MotoGP rider Jonas Folger made his WorldSBK bow with a solid 15th fastest of 22 riders on the Yamaha R1 he races in the German IDM Super🌌bike series. This weekend’s event is being billed as a potential pitch for him to make the switchও to the international stage full time in 2021.

However, it was a somewhat inauspicious debut for the ex-Tech 3 Yamaha rider when he struck a bird with edge of the front-end on the long home straight. Folger was undisturbed, but the same cannot be said for the bird...