After an enormous sandstorm blew through San Juan overnight, the 2022 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship faced intriguing track conditions when the field took the Circuito San Juan Villicum layout on Saturday morning. Having been the man to beat on Friday, it was once again Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) who bolted his name next to the number one position, with the Turkish rider aiming to gain points back in the title race.

Razgatlioglu didn’t get straight down to fast times in the session but in the final ten minutes, came to prominence and laid down the gauntlet with a new lap record. A 1’37.216 on his final lap of the session saw him improve, whilst second place honours went to Championship leader Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). Bautista was right on the pace with the SC0 tyre in the cooler temperatures and found a step in the final sector on his final lap to move to just 0.030s behind Razgatlioglu. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was the rider flying the Kawasaki flag in third, one place ahead of Iker Lecuona (Team HRC), who put his Honda in fourth as four different manufacturers locked out the top four places. It was a quiet session for Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who finished fifth, four tenths adrift of Razgatlioglu.

Top Independent honours went the way of Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW), who secured sixth place to make it five manufacturers in the top six with BMW, whilst Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) was seventh, a place ahead of his fellow Ducati rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). Eighth place for Rinaldi is the highest he’s been all weekend so far. Making it a trio of Italians in seventh to ninth was Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK), who went out later than the other riders and slipped further back, having started the weekend in P3 before going to P5 overall on Friday. Completing the top ten is the most recent San Juan race winner, Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). The only rider who didn’t improve their time compared to Friday was Eugene Laverty (Bonovo Action BMW), with Saturday morning being the fastest of the round.

Top six after WorldSBK FP3 at San Juan, full results here:

1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) 1’37.216s

2. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.030s

3. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.201s

4. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) +0.399s

5. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.404s

6. Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) +0.497s

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