Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) was one of the stars of Friday’s MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship action at the Balaton Park Circuit as he claimed fifth place on the combined timesheets. The rookie had his best result for a Friday in WorldSBK as he claimed P5 and caught the eye of many after such a strong showing mixing it with more experienced riders such as Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) and Barni Spark Racing Team duo Yari Montella and Alvaro Bautista at the Motul Hungarian Round.

The #67 finished Free Practice 1 in 12^th place after posting a 1’40.961s, around 1.5 seconds slower than Iker Lecuona (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) who finished in P1. His FP2 time was a 1’39.382s, which would have given him first place in the morning session, as he found around 1.6 seconds compared to his morning time.

His longest run across the two session was seven laps which he did in FP2. Six of these laps were in the 1’40s bracket, ranging from 1’40.191s on the final lap to 1’41.319s on the first lap; in fact, he improved his time with every lap that passed except on Lap 3, where he was two tenths slower than the second lap. He finished FP2 with two stints of two and three laps respectively, with all of these times in the 1’39s; his fastest time came on the first lap of his final run.

Surra on Friday: “I’m happy for today, I improved a lot at this circuit because it’s the first day of my life in Hungary! Thanks to my team because they did a great job and tomorrow, I’ll improve more. The layout of this circuit is very similar to a karting track where I train with the motard bike. For the rear tyre, I used the SCX and the front was the SC1. For me, it’s a good balance for the race. I don’t know what my goals are. I’ll focus lap by lap and race by race because it’s my first competitive weekend and I’ll be focused for it.”

Surra made the step to WorldSBK from the Moto2 European Championship, via a stint as a replacement rider in WorldSSP where he caught the eye with a podium finish, and some Moto2 wildcards. However, in none of the series he raced in last year did he race at Balaton Park, with this weekend marking his first visit to the Hungarian venue. His best finish so far in WorldSBK is a P9 on debut at Phillip Island, but perhaps, based off Friday’s showing, the #67 has the chance to match or exceed that this weekend.

Can Surra secure a top-five starting position and race result? Find out on Saturday using the WorldSBK VideoPass – now 30% off!