WorldSBK Magny Cours FP2: Toprak Razgatlıoğlu heads FP2

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu edges out championship contenders in FP2.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu was the fastest rider in the WorldSBK FP2 session finishing within 0.300 seconds of his follow championship contenders Scott Redding and Jonathan Rea as we once again saw five different manufacturers in the top six proving just how competitive the series is this year. The session was dry and warm, a stark contrast to this morning’s rain-affected session which begun in the wet before drying up over time.

The second session of the day saw the three title contenders fight it out to be the quickest with championship leader Toprak Razgatlıoğlu on top in the end, 0.208 seconds quicker than Ducati man Scott Redding in second place who is now well and truly back in the title fight, this is the first time the British rider has ridden Magny Cours in the dry and already he is proving he is competitive. Finishing third overall was Jonathan Rea 0.080 seconds back from Redding, Rea has struggled in the past two rounds allowing Toprak to gain vital championship points to catch up to and eventually overtake Rea, although the pair are in a dead-heat at 311 points, you can expect one of the two to be leading after Race 2 Sunday.

Chaz Davies was fourth fastest and the quickest independent rider of the session, 0.334 seconds behind Toprak in P1 and leading Leon Haslam in P5, the rider he and Tom Sykes in P6 are rumoured to be replacing at Honda for 2022 with Alvaro Bautista departing back to Ducati for 2022.

In P7 within 0.5 seconds to Yamaha teammate Razgatlıoğlu was Garrett Gerloff, the American slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things after receiving a lot of criticism lately for his moves on riders which have caused some major crashes, he led Alex Lowes and an improving Michael Ruben Rinaldi who finished FP1 in a low P16.

Rounding off the top 10 was Michael van der Mark 0.670 from the leader.

Full results – 

Featured image – Yamaha Racing