WorldSBK Magny-Cours: Rea takes charge as rain continues

Former WorldSBK king Jonathan Rea topped the second and soaking free practice at Magny-Cours, beating Axel Bassani by a second with Kawasaki team-mate and overall fastest man Alex Lowes in third.

Rea was 19th in FP1 but only went out in the wet conditions, whilst in the wetter running of FP2, he was up in third and was the top-placed out of his title rivals. Going to make it a perfect ten wins at Magny-Cours, Rea chases his first victory since Estoril back in May.

Having been fastest during the opening session courtesy of his fast time at the start of the day, Lowes remained on top overall and was also getting good track time in the wet FP2 session. Running second for the majority of the session, Lowes, who has a good history at the Magny-Cours venue, took third and will be hoping that Friday is a good platform for a return to the podium and start his second half of the season in good spirits.

Whilst the factory riders and teams were scattered throughout the order, there was plenty of reason to smile inside the top ten for the Independent riders. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) led the majority of the session before being pushed back to second, the only rider (apart from Rea) to lap in the 1’50s, of which Rea got down to a 1’49.379. Bassani was second ahead of Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team), with the American sixth, although he crashed with a highside on the exit of Turn 12, resulting in a red flag for debris. His teammate, Kohta Nozane, had his strongest Friday of the year and was eighth in the wet afternoon session.

In the factory Ducati camp, it was a mixed day as Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) finished fourth overall after one dry run but he was also fast in the wet track conditions.