2025 Phillip Island World Superbike: Friday Practice - LIVE
Live updates from Friday practice for the season-opening 2025 Australian WorldSBK round.
The 2025 World Superbike season begins with Friday practice at Phillip Island in Australia.
Title runner-up Nicolo Bulega heads into the weekend having dominated the pre-season test earlier this week, leading an all-Ducati top three ahead of Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci.
Meanwhile, BMW’s reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu made up for lost time after a big day one highside to reach fourth.
With Jonathan Rea out injured, team-mate Andrea Locatelli was the leading Yamaha in sixth ahead of Bimota duo Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani. Honda’s Xavi Vierge made it five manufacturers in the top ten.
Friday WorldSBK schedule:
Free Practice 1: 11:20-12:05
Free Practice 2: 16:00-16:45
Teams practice wheel changes, mandatory in this weekend's main races, as their riders return to the pits at the end of the session.
Phillip Island Free Practice 2 ends with Nicolo Bulega completing a Friday double ahead of Andrea Iannone.
BMW's reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu is the only non-Ducati in the top seven.
Iannone trims Bulega's advantage to 0.4s with one minute to go.
Andrea Locatelli runs wide at the Turn 4 hairpin, but keeps his R1 upright.
Bulega is really stretching his legs now. He's down to a 1m 28.790s and 0.6s clear of Iannone.
Razgatlioglu is now a speck in the distance behind Bulega on track.
Top 10 with 10mins to go: Bulega, Iannone, Razgatlioglu, Bautista, Petrucci, Alex Lowes, Redding, Montella, van der Mark, Locatelli.
Bulega ups the pace on the next lap, setting the first 1m 28s of the session.
Razgatlioglu drops away.
Razgatlioglu is now chasing Bulega on track. The BMW rider improves from 14th to 3rd as he manages to keep the Ducati within reach.
Alvaro Bautista's falls at the Turn 4 hairpin, where Razgatlioglu fell this morning. The former world champion gets his Ducati back to the pits for repairs.
Go Eleven's Andrea Iannone, who famously head-butted a seagull as a Ducati MotoGP rider at Phillip Island, keeps the pressure on Bulega by closing to just 0.084s behind the Aruba rider.
Halfway stage of FP2 and it's an all-Ducati top four with Bulega, Iannone, Petrucci and Bautista.
Alex Lowes is fifth and the only non-Panigale in the top seven with Redding and Montella behind.
van der Mark is the leading BMW in eighth with Locatelli and Bassani completing the top ten.
Razgatlioglu is still playing catch-up, in 13th, behind the Honda of Xavi Vierge.
Just as this morning, Bulega is setting a consistently high pace for lap after lap.
Valuable data for the teams and riders this afternoon, at the same time as the (long) races on Saturday and Sunday, although the mandatory pit stop means tyre wear won't be as much of an issue as usual.
15mins gone - top 10: Bulega, Iannone, Petrucci, Bautista, A.Lowes, Montella, van der Mark, Locatelli, Redding Vierge.
Razgatlioglu 11th (+0.810s).
Ten minutes gone and Bulega is back on top, from Iannone, with Alex Lowes in third for Bimota.
Meanwhile, Pata Yamaha's Paul Denning confirms Jonathan Rea will not be fit for the next round in Portimao. Replacement TBC.
Meanwhile, Rea's team-mate Andrea Locatelli sets the early FP2 pace.
Dorna's World Superbike TV commentator Steve English reveals that Yamaha MotoGP test rider Augusto Fernandez is being linked with replacing the injured Jonathan Rea in the next round.
The green flags are waved and the 45-minute FP2 sessions begins in bright Phillip Island sunshine.
Andrea Iannone was fastest in sector 1 this morning, with Nicolo Bulega then quickest in the following 3 sectors of the lap.
Toprak Razgatlioglu was 3rd in Sector 2, but only 11th quickest in the other sectors.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turn 4) and rookie Ryan Vickers (Turn 10) were the only fallers this morning, both escaping unhurt.
Recap of WorldSBK FP1:
1. Nicolo Bulega (Ducati)
2. Andrea Iannone (Ducati)
3. Alvaro Bautista (Ducati)
4. Danilo Petrucci (Ducati)
5. Dominique Aegerter (Yamaha)
6. Toprak Razgatlioglu (BMW)
7. Alex Lowes (Bimota)
8. Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha)
9. Axel Bassani (Bimota)
10. Sam Lowes (Ducati)
11. Michael van der Mark (BMW)
12. Yari Montella (Ducati)
13. Xavi Vierge (Honda)
14. Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki)
15. Scott Redding (Ducati)
16. Remy Gardner (Yamaha)
17. Ryan Vickers (Ducati)
18. Tito Rabat (Yamaha)
19. Tetsuta Nagashima (Honda)
20. Bahattin Sofuoglu (Yamaha)
21. Iker Lecuona (Honda)
22. Tarran Mackenzie (Honda)
23. Zaqhwan Zaidi (Honda)
World Supersport FP2 has just finished with Bo Bendsneyder fastest despite being taken to the medical centre after a nasty Turn 2 highside.
There are 20 minutes to go until the final WorldSBK session of the day begins, at 4pm, where the big question will be if anyone can halt Nicolo Bulega's perfect Phillip Island run.
Ducati's reigning title runner-up was fastest in all four testing sessions earlier this week, then on top again in this morning's FP1.
Nicolo Bulega's long run in FP1, which included the 1m 28.922s best of the session:
1. 1'29.699
2. 1'29.112
3. 1'29.817
4. 1'29.128
5. 1'29.078
6. 1'29.043
7. 1'28.922
8. 1'29.159
9. 1'29.041
