San Juan WorldSBK FP3 Results: Toprak Razgatlioglu holds off Alvaro Bautista

Toprak Razgatlioglu holds off the challenge from Alvaro Bautista to top the final practice ahead of Superpole in San Juan. 

With track action very busy at the start of FP3 following an overnight storm, Bautista, Razgatlioglu and Scott Redding all saw time at the top of the leaderboard before the championship leader began to stretch away.

A time of 1:38.229s was set by Bautista, with Razgatlioglu a further two tenths back. Alex Lowes momentarily took over at the front with a first sub 1m 38s lap of the session, however, Bautista responded immediately to go quickest once more. 

Bautista’s strengths were clear to see with sectors two and three proving to be especially strong for the Ducati rider, although he was still losing time to his rivals in sector four. 

Lowes then had his lap time deleted due to exceeding track limits, relegating him back to fourth position, before the Kawasaki rider set an impressive time of 1:37.417s to move back atop the standings. 

Struggling to match the pace of his team-mate, Jonathan Rea made an early return to pit lane after being more than a second slower than Lowes. 

Continuing to go quicker than Lowes in the opening three sectors, Bautista’s impressive race run saw him finally move back ahead of the Brit despite losing time again in the final few corners.

Rea began to find pace at the beginning of his second stint as he moved ahead of Razgatlioglu and into third, however, the two 2021 title contenders were struggling to match the pre-race favourite. 

Fastest on combined times during Friday practice, Razgatlioglu wrestled back control from Bautista by setting a 1:37.347s. 

Improvements on his next lap around resulted in Razgatlioglu going underneath the all-time lap record. 

San Juan WorldSBK Records:

Lap record: Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha 1:37.216s (2022)

2021 San Juan Winners

Race 1: Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha

Superpole Race: Toprak Razgatlioglu TUR Pata Yamaha 

Race 2: Scott Redding GBR Aruba.it Ducati

Marco Solorza is replacing Leon Haslam at Pedercini Kawasaki this weekend, while Maximilian Scheib is stepping in for Hafizh Syahrin who was ruled out due to injury and illness. 

Xavi Fores is also returning to WorldSBK as he replaces Luca Bernardi at Barni Spark Racing Ducati, after the Italian was demoted to WorldSSP with CM Ducati.

Prior to Friday's FP1 getting underway it was confirmed that Leandro Mercado won’t be continuing with MIE Honda in 2023. 

San Juan Weekend schedule (UK time) 

Friday 

Free Practice 1: 14:30-15:15

Free Practice 2: 19:00-19:45

Saturday

Free Practice 3: 14:00-14:30

Superpole: 16:10-16:25

Race 1: 19:00

Sunday 

Warm-up: 14:00-14:10

Superpole Race: 16:00

Race 2: 19:00