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Redding leads WorldSBK Warm-Up at Navarra, Yamaha show strength

Sunday, 22 August 2021 07:29 GMT

Race 1’s winner took top spot in the 15-minute session, but will he keep it ahead of the races today?

A blissfully sunny Sunday morning welcomed the 2021 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship on track at the Circuito de Navarra, with morning Warm-Up given the riders a chance to get dialled in for the day’s action. Leading the way into the final two races of the WorldSBK weekend, Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) took charge as he goes in quest of closing his gap to the top of the Championship down even further on Sunday at Navarra.

Race 1 winner and fastest in Warm-Up, Scott Redding set the early pace as he goes in search of a third consecutive win for the first time in WorldSBK career; he was the only rider into the 1’36s in Warm-Up. Jumping up the order in the final four minutes of the session was Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK), with the Turkish rider starting his Sunday off in good form, hoping that he can get back on terms with Redding and Rea. Third place went to the in-form Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK), whilst Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) finished fourth to make it three Yamahas challenging the Ducati of Redding at the head of the field. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) started his day in fifth, just over half a second off Redding.

Maintaining his top six pace was Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven), as he headed off Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), the Italian completing the top eight. The BMW pairing of Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and teammate Michael van der Mark rounded out the top ten, although van der Mark did suffer a crash at the final corner right at the end of the session – the innocuous incident saw him remount and he was perfectly OK. Leon Haslam (Team HRC) and teammate Alvaro Bautista were 11th and 12th respectively, whilst Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) suffered a technical issue on the front straight, leaving him 14th.

Top six after Warm-Up, full results here:

1 Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’36.903

2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) 1’37.079

3. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) 1’37.104

4. Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) 1’37.373

5. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1’37.420

6. Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven) 1’37.504

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