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Redding vs Rea: half-a-tenth separating the top two in FP3 at Most

Saturday, 7 August 2021 07:45 GMT

    • FP3 provided dry conditions similar to FP1 creating a busy 30-minute session with a flurry of fast laps at the end of the session

    Saturday’s action for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship got underway with a tight battle for top spot at the Autodrom Most for the Tissot Czech Round with Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) claiming first place just 0.053s ahead of six-time Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK).

    Redding has shown strong pace throughout the weekend and cemented this in the 30-minute Free Practice 3 session with a 1’32.240s to go fastest, with reigning Champion Rea in second place. Both put in a flurry of last laps in their second run to claim the top two spots with Italian rookie Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) the fastest Yamaha rider with third.

    Locatelli’s teammate, Toprak Razgatlioglu, was fourth just a tenth behind the reigning WorldSSP Champion. American Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) Team) claimed fifth place with Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) rounding out the top six as BMW’s recent form, stemming from a test at Navarra, continued.

    Once again, Marvin Fritz (IXS-YART Yamaha) impressed with a last lap effort in FP3 to claim seventh place on his slightly modified endurance specification Yamaha R1, finishing two tenths clear of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK). Fritz’s YART Yamaha teammate, Karel Hanika, showed the team have impressive pace with ninth with Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) finishing the top ten.

    Jonas Folger’s (Bonovo MGM Action) Saturday got off to a difficult start when he had a crash at the penultimate corner of the lap, the right-hander at Turn 20. He was unable to re-join the session following the crash, eventually finishing the session in 17th place.

    The top six from the combined classification, full results here:

    1 Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1’32.340s

    2. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.053s

    3. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) +0.210s

    4. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) +0.301s

    5. Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +0.627s

    6. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +0.793s

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