Dutch WorldSBK FP1 & 2 results | Bautista on top as Lecuona shines

The World Superbike Championship’s Dutch round got underway today (22 April 2022) in Assen, with glorious conditions greeting the riders in both the morning and afternoon.

Toprak Razgatlioglu topped the first session of the day, with almost half-a-second in-hand over second-placed Iker Lecuona. Those were the only two riders to lap faster than 1’35 in FP1, and were also the only riders to not improve in FP2, which perhaps indicates an alternative weekend plan compared to the rest of the field.

Strictly speaking, Eugene Laverty also did not improve in FP2, but that is because he did not go out in FP2, following a big crash that made a mess of the bike at the Ramshoek at the end of FP1. 

Although Razgatlioglu did not improve in the afternoon, his FP1 time was still good enough to finish the day second overall, just ahead of Jonathan Rea. 

Topping the times in the overall standings was Alvaro Bautista, the dominant winner of race two in Aragon two weeks ago. The #19 had been especially effective in sector two, where he was over one-tenth-of-a-second faster than both Rea and Razgatlioglu. This is the section which contains the longest straight on the track, and Bautista’s Ducati was the only bike to touch 300kph all day, when he did so in FP1. His fastest speed in FP2 was a measly 295kph, but that was still 1.5kph faster than Jonathan Rea’s Kawasaki, and 2.4kph faster than Toprak Razgatlioglu’s Yamaha.

In the combined standings, there are three tenths covering the top three riders: Bautista, Razgatlioglu, and Rea. After Rea is his Kawasaki teammate, Alex Lowes, who is fourth overall and just under a tenth slower than Rea.

Iker Lecuona’s FP1 time was enough for him to close out the top five at the end of the day, while Garrett Gerloff was the top Independent rider in sixth. 

Michael Ruben Rinaldi was seventh fastest overall, ahead of Loris Baz (top BMW) and Andrea Locatelli who, in ninth place and over a second off the pace, has some work to do overnight at the track where, last year, he claimed his first WorldSBK podium.

Axel Bassani was 10th, while Scott Redding ended the first day of his second race with BMW almost a second closer to where he spent most of his first weekend with the M1000RR. Unfortunately for Redding, that still leaves him over one second down on the man who replaced him at Ducati for this season, Alvaro Bautista. 

Full combined WorldSBK times from Assen are below.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Assen, Netherlands | FP1 + FP2 Results