The 2024 FIM Supersport 300 World Championship started on Friday with the sole Free Practice session, with Italian rider Mirko Gennai (MTM Kawasaki) topping the times with lap-record pace. The #26 moved to the Championship-defending team for this season and started off in perfect fashion at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as the Pirelli Catalunya Round marked the beginning of 2024 in WorldSSP300, with Gennai breaking the all-time lap record.

The pace was red-hot from the start of the 30-minute Free Practice session, with Jeffrey Buis (Freudenberg KTM – PALIGO Racing) taking a provisional P1 with a lap in the 1’55s. However, he was usurped by Gennai, his replacement at MTM Kawasaki, with the Italian setting the first ever 1’54s lap in Barcelona to smash the lap record and strike first in 2024. In the closing stages, Buis was demoted down to fifth as Inigo Iglesias Bravo (Fusport – RT Motorsport by SKM – Kawasaki) and teammate Petr Svoboda moved into second and third respectively.

Daniel Mogeda (Team#109 Retro Traffic Kawasaki) was running in the top three until the final stages but finished in fourth, with Buis starting his KTM career in fifth despite showing strong pace in the early stages of Free Practice. It was advantage Julio Garcia Gonzalez (KOVE Racing Team) as he took sixth, setting a 1’55.379s and completing the top six.

A race winner in 2023, Loris Veneman (MTM Kawasaki) started his 2024 campaign with seventh in practice, less than half-a-second off P1, with Aldi Satya Mahendra (Team BrCorse) securing eighth place. Unai Calatayud (ARCO SASH MotoR University Team) was ninth with his teammate, Samuel di Sora, completing the top ten after he made the switch from Kawasaki to Yamaha for 2024.

The top six from WorldSSP300 Free Practice, full results here:

1. Mirko Gennai (MTM Kawasaki) 1’54.916s

2. Inigo Iglesias Bravo (Fusport – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki) +0.178s

3. Petr Svoboda (Fusport – RT Motorsports by SKM – Kawasaki) +0.183s

4. Daniel Mogeda (Team#109 Retro Traffic Kawasaki) +0.246s

5. Jeffrey Buis (Freudenberg KTM – PALIGO Racing) +0.341s

6. Julio Garcia Gonzalez (KOVE Racing Team) +0.463s

Watch the first WorldSSP300 Tissot Superpole of 2024 at 14:10 Local Time (UTC+1) using the WorldSBK VideoPass!