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Rain greets WorldSBK on Saturday morning as Rea tops wet FP3 and leads British 1-2-3-4

Saturday, 3 July 2021 08:41 GMT

    • After a dry day of action on Friday, Saturday morning provided a different challenge as rain changed the complexion of the weekend

    The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship’s return to Donington Park featured a typical British summer’s day for Free Practice 3 as rain greeted the riders at the Prosecco DOC UK Round, with six-time Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) led the field by over a second as he led a British 1-2-3-4 on home soil.

    Rea led from the start of the 30-minute session and continually improved his time throughout FP3, eventually posting a 1’41.433s to lead the timesheets after the first running on Saturday, with teammate Alex Lowes in second place but 1.181s back from his teammate. Leon Haslam (Team HRC) put in a late lap to move into third place on his CBR1000 RR-R after showing strong pace in the wet throughout the session.

    Three manufacturers completed the top four with Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in fourth place, another rider who continually improved throughout the session and ended up with a 1’43.335s. American Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) impressed yet again as he had to learn the circuit in different conditions than yesterday on his first visit, although he did have a trip through the gravel at Turn 2, while Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) was the lead Ducati in sixth; the youngest rider on the grid also impressing throughout.

    Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven) claimed seventh place ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) in eighth, Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) in ninth and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) rounding out the top ten; the four riders separated by just two tenths.

    It proved to be a challenging session for Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) as he finished in 12th place and suffered from a session-ending crash at the Turn 11 Melbourne Hairpin, while Jonas Folger (Bonovo MGM Action) had an offer at the Turn 8 right-hander of Coppice.

    The top six following a wet FP3, full results here:

    1. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1’41.433

    2. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +1.181s

    3. Leon Haslam (Team HRC) +1.288s

    4. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +1.902s

    5. Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +2.538s

    6. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) +3.151s

    Combined results from all three sessions can be found here.

    Follow all the action from Donington Park using the WorldSBK VideoPass!