The action to start the 2022 FIM Supersport 300 World Championship season kicked off with Free Practice 1 at MotorLand Aragon as 2017 Champion Marc Garcia (Yamaha MS Racing) topped the timesheets during the opening session for the Pirelli Aragon Round. His best lap of the session came right at the end of the 30-minute session as he leapfrogged his rivals to claim top spot for the first session of the season.

Garcia posted a best time of 2’06.564s on his last lap to top the timesheets by more than three tenths in the 30-minute session, ahead of Ton Kawakami (AD78 Team Brasil by MS Racing). The Brazilian had topped the timesheets throughout the second half of the session and his time of 2’06.799s had looked like it would have been enough to top the timesheets but found himself demoted to second by Garcia. Lennox Lehmann (Freudenberg KTM – Paligo Racing) claimed third place as he showed the potential of the KTM RC 390 R machine, with Lehmann the sole KTM representative on the grid.

The returning Bruno Ieraci (Prodina Racing WorldSSP300) claimed fourth spot in his Kawasaki Ninja 400, as all three manufacturers were represented in the top four, finishing two tenths clear of Victor Steeman (MTM Kawasaki) in fifth place as the Dutchman makes his debut for his new team. 2021 Yamaha R3 Cup winner Iker Garcia Abella (Yamaha MS Racing) was sixth on his first WorldSSP300 session, with a best time of 2’07.323 on his Yamaha YZF-R3 machine.

French rider Hugo de Cancellis (Prodina Racing WorldSSP300) was eighth and the last rider within a second of Garcia’s pace, with debutant Humberto Maier (AD78 Team Brasil by MS Racing) finished inside the top ten, 1.279s away from Garcia’s time. Italian rider Gabriele Mastroluca (ProGP Racing) rounded out the top ten in the opening session with a best time 2’07.904s.

The top six following WorldSSP300 FP1, full results here:

1 Marc Garcia (Yamaha MS Racing) 2’06.564

2 Ton Kawakami (AD78 Team Brasil by MS Racing) +0.235

3 Lennox Lehmann (Freudenberg KTM – Paligo Racing) +0.260

4. Bruno Ieraci (Prodina Racing WorldSSP300) +0.415s

5. Victor Steeman MTM Kawasaki) +0.642

6. Iker Garcia Abella (Yamaha MS Racing) +0.759

Watch WorldSSP300 action from Aragon with FP2 at 14:15 (Local Time (GMT+2)) using the WorldSBK VideoPass!