Loris Baz fastest in rain-lashed Magny-Cours FP3 as Jonathan Rea takes a tumble

2020 WorldSBK Magny-Cours - Free Practice Results (3)

Loris Baz topped the timesheets in the short morning WorldSBK FP3 session at Magny-Cours as torrid conditions continued to hamper proceedings in France, while champion-elect Jonathan Rea suffered a crash.

With persistent rain and a wet track present in all three practice sessions ahead of this morning’s Superpole session - which is expected to be held in similar conditions - this was the last chance for riders to get a feel for the slippery surface.

However, having avoided an incident at Turn 7 yesterday when he caught a high-side and ran off track, defending champion Rea wasn’t so lucky this time as he lost the rear of the Kawasaki coming around the left-hand part of the quick chicane and skated across the gravel trap.

Unharmed, Rea proceeded to engage in a somewhat comical adventure across the access roads to get lost on his way to the paddock, preventing him from getting back to set a time. 

As such, Baz - who won the first of two WorldSBK races in 2012 in similar conditions - was quickest, heading off Alex Lowes on the second of the factory Kawasaki ZX-10RRs and the increasingly impressive Garrett Gerloff, once more up at the sharp end of the field on the GRT Yamaha.

With Alvaro Bautista seemingly struggling in the wet conditions having failed to rise above 18th all weekend as yet, Leon Haslam led the Honda charge in fourth position from Chaz Davies in fifth place, while Xavi Fores was once more further up the field than of late in sixth on the Puccetti Kawasaki, a double race winner here a year ago with Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Michael van der Mark led Yamaha counterpart Federico Caricasulo, ahead of Eugene Laverty and Scott Redding, the latter struggling with his lack of wet mileage on a Superbike.