WorldSBK Assen FP2: Jonathan Rea bests Gerloff to lead FP2

July 23, 2021July 23, 2021 EMR Writer

Jonathan Rea reigned over Assen this afternoon beating Gerloff late into the session to lead.

Once again Jonathan Rea showed everyone how it is done leading the way in the FP2 session at Assen, a track he has a strong history at winning 12 times here in the past. Gerloff is also benefitting from some recent experience here after competing in the MotoGP round on the Petronas Yamaha in place of Franco Morbidelli, this experience very clearly coming to fruition today finishing only 0.121 seconds off Rea after leading for most of the session.

Honda have made some steady progress in the form of Alvaro Bautista, the Spanish rider occupying the third-place spot, the ex-MotoGP man is another rider boasting a wealth of experience at the legendary track with Honda making some strong progress in recent weeks, besting an incredibly competitive mid-top 10 with Bautista in P3 and Mahias in P6 separated by a minuscule 0.030 seconds.

Tom Sykes was the last man in a multi-manufacturer top 4 with the Kawasaki leading the Yamaha, Honda then BMW, Sykes finished only 0.012 seconds from Bautista up ahead of him but if he wants to add another podium to his name he’s going to need more than that given the depth of field on show here!

Title leader Toprak Razgatlioglu rounded off the top 5 only 0.002 seconds behind the BMW of Sykes, Toprak is aiming to extend his title lead but is yet to beat title rival Jonathan Rea today in either FP1 or FP2 with Rea showing clear pace and dominance, but we all know Toprak is a ‘race day’ man, proving so at Donington going from P13 to P2 in lap one.

Lucas Mahias led a Ducati duo of Scott Redding in P7 and Michael Ruben Rinaldi in P8, the Ducati’s once again proving their inconsistency after dominating the top 4 in FP1, this time we see the Bologna machines in the latter end of the top 10 and in P14 (Davies), P15 (Bassani) and P16 (Rabat).

Ex-teammates Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark rounded off the top 10 with Van der Mark only 0.583 from Rea in P1.

Full results –