After a long day, the 2020 FIM Supersport 300 World Championship got underway with the Pirelli Spanish Round; with home rider Mika Perez (Prodina Ircos Team WorldSSP300) topping the timesheets at Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto. Times between riders were minimal across Friday’s two practice sessions as Perez made the first move with the fastest time of the day in the first Free Practice session.

Perez’s time of 1’53.609, set in the first practice session, was enough to be the fastest time of the day as he beat Tom Booth-Amos (RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki), whose best time came in Free Practice 2 at Jerez. Unai Orradre (Yamaha MS Racing) was third fastest across both sessions with a time of 1’53.770s; just over a tenth separating the top three after the first day of WorldSSP300 action.

Meikon Kawakami (Team Brasil AD78) was fourth fastest for the day’s track action with a time of 1’53.907 on his WorldSSP300 debut, beating Scott Deroue (MTM Kawasaki MOTOPORT) by around one tenth of a second. Hugo de Cancellis (Team TRASIMENO), entering his third season in World Supersport 300, was sixth fastest. The top six in the highly-competitive field were separated by less than half a second, showing how close racing will be in the 2020 WorldSSP300 season.

Deroue’s MTM Kawasaki MOTOPORT teammate, Yuta Okaya, finished the day with the seventh fastest time, around a tenth off Deroue, after setting a time of 1’54.113s in Free Practice 2. Italian rider Gabriele Mastroluca (GP Project) was eighth after setting his best time in Free Practice 1; beating Tom Edwards (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) by 0.003s – Edwards setting his best time in Free Practice 1. Bruno Ieraci (Kawasaki GP Project) rounded out the top 10 of the WorldSSP field.

2018 World Champion Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki Provec WorldSSP300) finished the day in 15^th place while Ukrainian rider Nick Kalinin (Battley-RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki) and Johan Gimbert finished the day 18^th and 19^th respectively; Gimbert finishing just over one second off the pace of Perez. Koen Meuffels (MTM Kawasaki MOTOPORT) finished the session in 26^th place, with more to come from the Dutch rider who has one win and two podiums to his name in WorldSSP300.

The top six from today’s two Free Practice sessions, with full results available here:

1.) Mika Perez (Prodina Ircos Team WorldSSP300) 1’53.609

2.) Tom Booth-Amos (RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki) 1’53.756

3.) Unai Orradre (Yamaha MS Racing) 1’53.770

4.) Meikon Kawakami (Team Brasil AS 78) 1’53.907

5.) Scott Deroue (MTM Kawasaki MOTOPORT) 1’54.001

6.) Hugo De Cancellis (Team TRASIMENO) 1’54.043

The action from WorldSSP300 can be followed with the WorldSBK VideoPass!