Redding leads pack at Phillip Island

Full Phillip Island WorldSBK FP2 results

Scott Redding has enjoyed the perfect start to his World Superbike debut by topping Friday practice following rainy conditions and a brief red flag.

With the opening practice session stalled by overnight rain, the new Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider still made the most of conditions to top FP1 ahead by over a second from Loris Baz on the Ten Kate Yamaha.

But with track conditions drying up for FP2, it provided all riders will more representative running following on from the official two-day test. Redding duly retained top spot with a fastest lap of 1m 30.436s to pull out almost a half-second buffer to nearest rival Toprak Razgatlioglu on the factory Pata Yamaha.

The Turkish rider beat his Yamaha team-mate Michael van der Mark to second place despite seeing his late time attack fail to topple Redding in the closing minutes of FP2. The session was briefly halted 10 minutes in by a red flag for debris.

Leon Haslam caught the eye on the new Honda by slotting into fourth place fractionally ahead of Baz who enjoyed an impressive day by completing the top five.

Defending World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea had a more measured start to his 2020 race season with sixth place at the end of FP2, with former team-mate Tom Sykes leading the BMW charge in seventh place.

Alvaro Bautista, who stormed to a dominant debut hat-trick of wins at the Australian circuit 12 months ago for Ducati, found encouraging gains on the new Honda in eighth place in FP2 having struggled with the transition to the CBR1000RR-R.

With Michael Ruben Rinaldi in ninth place for Team GoEleven Ducati, Xavi Fores rounded out the top 10 on his return to WorldSBK with Puccetti Kawasaki after spending 2019 in the British Superbike championship.

Alex Lowes made a muted debut for Kawasaki in 11^th place, ahead of Sandro Cortese on the Pedericini Kawasaki and factory Ducati’s Chaz Davies with new BMW rider Eugene Laverty in 14^th.

World Superbike rookie Garrett Gerloff edged out fellow debutant and GRT Yamaha team-mate Federico Caricasulo ahead of Maximilian Scheib (Orelac Racing Kawasaki), Leon Camier (Barni Ducati) and Takumi Takahashi (Mie Althea Honda).