Davies heads up Rinaldi in WorldSBK FP1 at Aragon
WorldSBK Aragon - Free Practice Results (1)
Chaz Davies set the early pace as in first free practice as round four of the 2020 WorldSBK Championship kicked off at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain.
The first of two events to be held back-to-back at the Alcaniz venue, one that is used frequently for testing, it is nonetheless where Ducati is tipped as a hot favourite over main rivals Kawasaki with its particularly long back straight.
It’s a prediction that rang true during the first 50min session of the weekend as Davies’ early benchmark of 1m 50.543s held out until the chequered flag.
The Welshman comes into this weekend under pressure to perform with his Aruba.it Ducati seat considered under threat after a run of disappointing results, at least relative to satellite rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who duly matched his stablemate less than half a tenth off in second position on the Go Eleven Ducati.
Championship leader Jonathan Rea turned in the third fastest time on the best of the Kawasaki contingent, ahead of Alvaro Bautista, whose strong lap time was undone by a tip off at Turn 1 midway through the session followed by a technical issue on the Honda CBR1000RR-R towards the end.
Though the BMW is down on top speed compared with its rivals, Tom Sykes utilised the tow from team-mate Eugene Laverty to show potential in fifth place, with Loris Baz leading the low key Yamaha contingent in sixth, ahead of factory rider Michael van der Mark.
Alex Lowes was eighth best on the second ZX-10RR, ahead of Leon Haslam, who will hope for a strong result this weekend around a venue Honda has conducted much of its testing with the new Fireblade.
A late improvement from Garrett Gerloff lifted him into the top ten, ahead of title contender Scott Redding in 11th, followed by Maximilian Scheib on the Orelac Kawasaki and Toprak Razgatlioglu in 13th.
