WorldSBK Indonesia FP1: Toprak Razgatlıoğlu dazzles leading by 1.5 seconds

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu has dominated FP1 in Indonesia leading by 1.5 seconds ahead of the field.

It’s a new track, a new country and a new race and he’s feeling good! Toprak Razgatlıoğlu absolutely dominated the FP1 session at the brand new Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit which is being debuted in WorldSBK this weekend for the first time after construction work was completed in record time.

The riders spent this morning’s session getting to grips with the new circuit and learning how their tyres are suited to the track in its incredibly hot conditions, because of this we saw an incredibly spread out grid as the ideal lines have not been found for the time speaking but this should open the doors to some very good racing! It was Toprak Razgatlıoğlu who went fastest this morning leading the field by a monumental 1.544 seconds, the Turkish rider beaming confidence as he looks to seal the championship this weekend, he led Alex Lowes in second place with Garrett Gerloff not too far behind in third only 0.156 seconds from the Kawasaki man’s lap time.

In his last round as a Ducati man Scott Redding looked incredibly comfortable as he also worked to get to grips with the new circuit, the British rider still has a chance to wrap up the manufacturers’ title against Yamaha and will put his all into doing so before he heads off to BMW, rounding out the top five was Isaac Vinales who has shown some strong signs of speed in recent rounds.

Alvaro Bautista went sixth fastest ahead of sensational rookie Axel Bassani, the Italian rider running within the top three for most of the session before being pushed down the pecking order thanks to a last-minute surge of lap times, he led Michael van der Mark, Michael Ruben Rinaldi then Andrea Locatelli who rounded out the top 10 a full 2.305 seconds back from his teammate.

Struggling his way to P11 was Jonathan Rea, the title hopeful spent most of the session in the pit box thanks to an issue with his motorcycle costing him important track time which could’ve been used to learn the circuit, now at a disadvantage Rea will be looking to return to the top later today in FP2.

Full results – 

Featured image – WorldSBK