WorldSBK Donington FP1: Jonathan Rea leads

July 2, 2021 EMR Writer

Jonathan Rea was the fastest man in this morning’s FP1 session.

Jonathan Rea has opened up his race weekend in P1, doing so on home soil at Donington Park as the British riders of the class all look to step up their game in front of their home fans. Rea lead title rival Toprak Razgatlioglu by 0.264 seconds, the Yamaha rider confirming a 2 year deal this morning to remain with the Iwata factory until 2023 with his eyes set on the title. The championship gap between the two has been significantly reduced at Misano with Toprak beating Rea in all three races meaning there is only 20 points separating them heading into this weekend, a mistake during a race for either of them could throw a massive spanner in the works.

The title leading duo lead Tom Sykes on the BMW in third place with Michael Ruben Rinaldi in fourth, Rinaldi heads into this round following a duo of wins at his home race in Misano, beaming with confidence he was able to finish in the top 4 and will be looking to continue this progress heading into this round.

Rounding off the top 5 is Garrett Gerloff, the American competed in the Assen MotoGP round last weekend and impressed many on a two-year-old bike, he insists his focuses, for the time being, are solely on the Superbike series with MotoGP just a dream for now.

Scott Redding lead a British trio from P6 to P8, the Ducati man has a lot of success here winning a 125cc Grand Prix race at just 15 years old here way back in 2008, these fond memories should hopefully push him into battling for victory this weekend, he led Leon Haslam and Alex Lowes in P8.

Rounding off the top 10 were Michael van der Mark and Chaz Davies who could take his 100th podium this weekend on home soil.

Further down the order Axel Bassani finished in P12 with Bautista struggling to P14. Luke Mossey deserves a shout-out taking P17, he is filling in as a late substitute for Samuele Cavalieri who has parted ways with the Pedercini team.

Full results –