Is Scott Redding in contention for a first WorldSBK race win with BMW at Most?
What would also be a first win since joining BMW, Redding will have the first of three opportunities during today’s Most WorldSBK race one.
Taking very little time to settle in both Friday’s practice sessions, Redding was proving to be a match for all three of the title contenders, along with Michael Ruben Rinaldi.
“The pace was there”
"I'm happy. I started good in the morning, I just used one tyre and we tried to get the feeling, we used the same setting from Donington for me to have at least the connection and the feeling with the bike," said Redding.
"This worked really well so I'm happy. And then in the afternoon, we tried to improve a few areas which we did successfully.
"The temperature came up so it was a bit of a different feeling riding, but the pace was still there which was good. So overall I’m happy and feeling quite comfortable."
After a tough opening few rounds, Donington Park was not only a major step forward for BMW, but Redding also looked back to his best.
A new swingarm and geometry setting changes helped play a key role, but with Redding often finishing best of the BMW riders this season, and by some margin it must be said, there’s reason to suggest Redding is also making the difference.
During Friday’s long-run performance, Redding’s pace was only bettered by reigning WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu in FP2.
Redding completed a run of 12 consecutive laps in the low to mid 1m32s bracket, while in FP1 Redding’s pace was on par with that of Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea, with the latter finishing fastest.
While Razgatlioglu, Rea and series leader Alvaro Bautista remain the riders to beat, Redding is arguably the best placed rider to take advantage should mistakes be made.
Most WorldSBK: Baz also in the mix for BMW
Redding was not the only BMW rider to impress as Loris Baz also showed very good pace throughout Friday practice.
"The feeling was good from the first laps of FP1, I just had to find my pace," added the former MotoGP rider.
"I’ve been here only once, and it wasn’t with Superbike. I was pretty happy to see that the updates BMW brought in Donington were working here as well. I was happy to see that the bike was behaving in a good way from the first laps.
"We had a lot of things to do, it seems like it's going to rain tomorrow (which it has) so we had try all the tyres and other things today.
"I wasn’t really fast in FP1, but we managed to improve every lap with the old tyre. We then had a pretty good FP2. We tried the SCX at the end just to see how it was. It wasn’t a perfect lap time but we're on the good way and we just need to confirm tomorrow."
