Ducati 1-2-3-4 in WorldSBK FP2 at Phillip Island

2023 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship

Round One – Phillip Island

World Superbike FP2

A track temperature approaching 50-degrees didn’t prevent Alvaro Bautista from banging in a 1m30.927 early on in FP2 to set a new benchmark for the day.

It didn’t look easy though as Bautista continued his long run with the Ducati slipping and sliding all over the place beneath the diminutive Spaniard. Nonetheless he just keep reeling off 1min31s and looked to be in a class of his own in these hot conditions.

It was a Ducati 1-2-3 for the majority of the FP2 session. Alvaro Bautista leading Michael Rinaldi and Philipp Oettl. Bautista and Rinaldi two of the few riders to actually prove quicker this afternoon than in the cooler FP1 session.

Andrea Locatelli was the first to be able to split the Ducati trifecta, moving up to P3 with 18-minutes remaining in the 45-minute session.

With 15-minutes remaining in the session Jonathan Rea was languishing down in 16th position.

Remy Gardner was just inside the top ten for the majority of the session and improved to P8 with 14-minutes left on the shot clock but was still two-tenths off his FP1 best.

The fire went out on Rinaldi’s V4 R as he went to exit the pits for his final run and had to push his machine back to his pit garage, which luckily was situated closest to the pit exit.

With just over eight minutes remaining Danilo Petrucci made it a Ducati 1-2-3 on top once again after pushing Locatelli back to fourth. Dominique Aegerter then pushed Locatelli further back to fifth to become the fastest Yamaha in the session. Not for long though as Gerloff then stole that fourth place off Aegerter next time around.  Locatelli then went down at turn ten while trying to improve his standing.

With seven-minutes remaining Bautista was back out on fresh rubber and went immediately quicker. A 1m30.623 then backed it up with a 1m30.929.

His Aruba Ducati team-mate got out just in time to get another lap in and Rinaldi was actually quicker than Bautista through the first split but the lap went away from him

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Philipp Oettl then sprang back up to third place to push Petrucci back to P4 and as the chequered flag came out it was Ducati 1-2-3-4 in this second practice session. Clearly when the track conditions are hot the Ducati has a distinct advantage, whether that be through sheer mechanical grip or better electronic strategies I don’t know, but something is definitely working in their favour.

Yellow flags then spoiled the last ditch efforts of many riders who had their laps cancelled including Remy Gardner who finished the session tenth.

Scott Redding didn’t manage to turn a wheel until the dying minutes of this FP2 session. The team busy trying to find some mechanical gremlins lurking in the BMW while all Scott could do was sit in his pit box in leathers in the hope that they got it going. They finally did but it only really gave the Briton time to shake down the bike and himself and he could make no impression on the time-sheets.

On combined times Bautista leads Locatelli and Lecuona, that latter pair both setting their best time this morning.

It should be noted that some riders, including most definitely Jonathan Rea, are running a very tight tyre strategy this weekend and saving the new rubber in their limited allocation for the remainder of the weekend in anticipation of possible red flag stoppages or other interruptions, where having an extra new tyre left at their disposal could prove pivotal.  Conditions are expected to be slightly cooler tomorrow, and a good few degrees cooler on Sunday.

World Superbike FP2 Times

World Superbike Friday Combined Times

Phillip Island WorldSBK/ASBK Race Schedule