With a still damp track the early minutes of Fridays FP1 highlighted the home knowledge for the British contingent, each placing strongly in the standings with the exception of Jonny Rae whom missed a significant portion of the session whilst his team tried to diagnose a ‘strange’ technical issue with his R1. This resulted in many parts being changed in quick succession in an attempt to get him back out on track as quickly as possible leaving analysis of the potential cause to be carried out without further loss of much needed track time.
Despite this loss of setup and track time Rea showed promise and things are heading in the right direction finishing the session in P13. Alex lowes continued his excellent 2024 form in P4 with his brother Sam adapting to his first visit on his Ducati V4R.
Scott Redding also hinted at a potentially strong round in P10 one of his career defining venues. Bradley Ray looked to be having fun out on track with his effortless looking style once again visible to see resulting in finishing the session P16. Tarran Mackenzie appeared to be struggling with setup on his MIE Honda however still finished hot on the tail of his factory HRC rivals in P21 confirming he is managing to extract the current maximum performance of his machine. With track dry for FP2 times tumbled.
Alex lowes retained 4th however closed the gap significantly to Toprak. Scott Redding leapt to 5th ahead of Bautista. Sam Lowes moved inside the top ten to 9th. Johnny Rea moved up to 12th and more importantly closed to within a second of the fastest time.
Bradley Ray found time however shuffled down the order to P17 but looks to be in with battling several riders ahead. All Honda riders found significant time for the last session of the day with Tarran finding the most finishing as first Honda in P19.
Toprak is the rider on form for todays racing, coverage available on Eurosport.
Words: Kerrie McFadden info@firstturnmedia.co.uk
Photography: Rachel Bourne and Jason Neale
