The 2022 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship’s halfway point has been reached as the Prosecco DOC Czech Round started. The first Free Practice session of the weekend at the Autodrom Most saw Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) storm to the top of the timesheets and go sub-1’32 in the closing minutes of the session, as he looks to add Most to his list of winning circuits.

Rea was on the pace from the start and having been second for most of the session, he came through to topple Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) with just seconds to go, setting a 1’31.893. Razgatlioglu came out of the blocks as the rider to beat, coming from a career-first triple at Donington Park. Having won two races at Most last year, Razgatlioglu was knocked off the top spot with just seconds remaining and wasn’t quite quick enough to retake top spot from Rea. Third place went to Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team), with the American, as usual, showing good potential in Free Practice, whilst fourth place went to the top Ducati of Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), with fellow countryman Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) making it three Yamahas inside the top five.

Sixth place went to Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), who was solid in his first Most showing for Ducati, whilst Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was seventh, likewise enjoying a solid start. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) was top Honda and took eighth place ahead of Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing), who completed the top ten. Hafizh Syahrin (MIE Racing Honda Team) had his most impressive Friday morning of the season, up in 11^th and as the third-best Independent bike.

Further housekeeping from FP1 included Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) in 13^th on his Most debut, whilst Sammarinese rookie Luca Bernardi (BARNI Spark Racing Team) was 15^th. Oliver Konig (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) had a new livery on his ZX-10RR and finished his first WorldSBK session on home turf in 20^th whilst British riders Peter Hickman (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was 21^st and Ryan Vickers (TPR Team Pedercini Racing) was 24^th. Hickman is replacing Michael van der Mark whilst Vickers steps in for Leon Haslam, who has Suzuka 8 Hours commitments.

Top six after WorldSBK FP1, full results here:

1. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1’31.893s

2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +0.035s

3. Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +0.456s

4. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.488s

5. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +0.573s

6. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.633s

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