Razgatlioglu gets the better of Rea and Rinaldi during Donington Park FP1

Wasting no time in asserting himself, six-time WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea blasted to the top of the leaderboard by over 1.1 seconds from team-mate Alex Lowes.

Rea’s second flying lap extended that gap to 1.8 seconds before Scott Redding jumped up to second place - still 1.6s away from the KRT rider. 

As lap times continued improving, Lowes regained second spot from Redding, however, Rea remained half a second clear of his team-mate. 

Rea, who has made a habit of starting sessions quickly in 2022, was proving tough to get to terms with while Andrea Locatelli suffered an early crash. 

Locatelli’s team-mate Toprak Razgatlioglu was also beginning to find pace as he went third quickest aboard his Yamaha R1. 

Keen to impress at his home round, Lowes moved to within +0.148s of Rea as the British pair continued their early dominance for Kawasaki. 

Following Locatelli’s early off, MIE Honda rider Leandro Mercado then suffered a mechanical issue at turn seven. 

On track, there was visible frustration for impressive WorldSBK rookie Iker Lecuona as the Spaniard found himself stuck behind GoEleven Ducati rider Philipp Oettl.

Still the only rider to go underneath the 1m 28s barrier, Rea was continuing to hold off Lowes and Razgatlioglu, while championship leader Alvaro Bautista was fifth fastest behind Redding. 

A track that has proved extremely difficult for Ducati - the Bologna-based manufacturer last won a race at the British circuit in 2011 - Bautista then moved his Panigale V4 R up to third place. 

Making it three Ducatis inside the top ten were Michael Rinaldi and Philipp Oettl, however, both riders were close to a second down on Rea’s time, while half a second slower than Bautista. 

Rinaldi, who like Bautista began to find more pace as the stint went on, moved up to fifth with just under 15 minutes remaining of FP1. 

A circuit he calls his ‘favourite’ on the Superbike calendar, Razgatlioglu’s hopes of becoming a winner again at Donington Park appeared to be heading in the right direction.

The Turkish rider’s long run pace was proving to be a match for anyone, as was Bautista’s as he went within two tenths of Rea late on. 

Not to be outshone by Bautista, Rinaldi jumped up to second place with five minutes remaining, however, it was Razgatlioglu who proved to have the pace good enough to dislodge Rea from top spot.  A time of 1:27.805s was set by the reigning world champion 

Despite threatening to go even quicker, Razgatlioglu and Rea were unable to improve which led to the top three remaining unchanged through to the checkered flag.