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Rachit Thukral

Barcelona WSBK: Lecuona tops Friday practice for Honda

Less than a fortnight after Honda’s least competitive showing of the year at Magny-Cours, Lecuona showed signs of a return to form for the Japanese manufacturer by topping the times across the opening two practice sessions of the weekend.

Most of the day’s fastest times were set in the morning session, with Lecuona himself setting his chart-setting top time towards the end of FP1. The Spaniard rider lapped his home track in 1m41.396s, ending the day more than half a second clear of Rinaldi’s Ducati and the Yamaha of reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Points leader Alvaro Bautista was quickest in the afternoon session, but his time was only good enough for fourth in the overall timesheets - six tenths down on Lecuona’s FP1 benchmark.

Kawasaki star Jonathan Rea made a minor improvement between the two sessions to take fifth, with Andrea Locatelli finishing right behind him on the second of the two works Yamahas.

Xavi Vierge rounded off a strong showing for Honda in seventh, beating the factory Kawasaki of Alex Lowes by a tenth of a second.

Axel Bassani was once again the top independent rider in the field on the Motocorsa Ducati in ninth, half a second down on the factory bike of Rinaldi. In the week up to Barcelona, it was announced that Rinaldi will remain with the works Ducati team next year, despite both Bassani and Danilo Petrucci being linked to his seat.

The top 10 was completed by BMW’s Scott Redding, who narrowly beat the GRT Yamaha of Garrett Gerloff and the Bonovo BMW of Eugene Laverty.

Gerloff will move to the Bonovo satellite team next year to replace Laverty, who will retire from racing to take a management role with the squad.

Redding’s teammate Michael van der Mark suffered a technical problem on his BMW that restricted him to just two laps in FP1. He returned later in the afternoon, ending up 19th quickest with a time of 1m44.925s.

Former MotoGP rider Hafizh Syahrin took no part in Friday practice due to a respiratory tract infection and his medical condition will be reviewed on Saturday morning.

Barcelona WSBK - FP1 results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 7 Spain Iker Lecuona Honda 1'41.396  
2 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 1'41.931 0.535
3 1 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 1'41.991 0.595
4 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 1'42.042 0.646
5 65 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 1'42.113 0.717
6 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 1'42.143 0.747
7 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 1'42.358 0.962
8 31 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 1'42.683 1.287
9 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty BMW 1'42.688 1.292
10 97 Spain Xavi Vierge Honda 1'42.744 1.348
11 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding BMW 1'42.883 1.487
12 5 Germany Philipp Oettli Ducati 1'43.018 1.622
13 76 France Loris Baz BMW 1'43.043 1.647
14 3 Japan Kohta Nozane Yamaha 1'43.473 2.077
15 47 Italy Axel Bassani Ducati 1'43.475 2.079
16 52 Czech Republic Oliver Konig Kawasaki 1'43.594 2.198
17 44 France Lucas Mahias Kawasaki 1'43.631 2.235
18 23 France Christophe Ponsson Yamaha 1'43.870 2.474
19 99 Oscar Gutierrez Kawasaki 1'43.892 2.496
20 2 Italy Roberto Tamburini Yamaha 1'44.214 2.818
21 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado Honda 1'44.430 3.034
22 29 San Marino Luca Bernardi Ducati 1'44.658 3.262
23 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark BMW 1'44.925 3.529
  35 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin Honda    

Barcelona WSBK - FP2 results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time Gap
1 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 1'42.018  
2 65 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 1'42.058 0.040
3 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 1'42.085 0.067
4 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 1'42.121 0.103
5 97 Spain Xavi Vierge Honda 1'42.221 0.203
6 1 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 1'42.318 0.300
7 47 Italy Axel Bassani Ducati 1'42.477 0.459
8 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding BMW 1'42.648 0.630
9 44 France Lucas Mahias Kawasaki 1'42.737 0.719
10 5 Germany Philipp Oettli Ducati 1'42.823 0.805
11 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty BMW 1'42.828 0.810
12 7 Spain Iker Lecuona Honda 1'42.844 0.826
13 31 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 1'42.904 0.886
14 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 1'42.937 0.919
15 76 France Loris Baz BMW 1'43.048 1.030
16 29 San Marino Luca Bernardi Ducati 1'43.230 1.212
17 2 Italy Roberto Tamburini Yamaha 1'43.595 1.577
18 3 Japan Kohta Nozane Yamaha 1'43.599 1.581
19 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark BMW 1'43.613 1.595
20 99 Oscar Gutierrez Kawasaki 1'43.924 1.906
21 23 France Christophe Ponsson Yamaha 1'44.179 2.161
22 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado Honda 1'44.281 2.263
23 52 Czech Republic Oliver Konig Kawasaki 1'44.293 2.275
24 35 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin Honda    
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