Superbikes | Argentina Round, FP1: Alvaro Bautista starts with the best time

The penultimate round of the 2019 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship on the San Juan Villicum Circuit began with a first interlocutory free practice session, with times well ahead of those recorded a year ago, mainly due to the very dusty track conditions .

Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati), making his debut on this circuit, finished ahead of everyone, followed by the new five-time World Champion Jonathan Rea and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team), who showed off a great pace on his first time on the circuit.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) finished in fourth place with Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) fifth.
Sixth and first of the Yamahas is Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team), who a few hours ago was made official as the new KRT rider for 2020.
Behind him are other bikes from the Iwata company with Michael van der Mark, Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), as well as the Yamaha GRT WorldSBK of Sandro Cortese and that of the poleman of the 2018 edition in Argentina, Marco Melandri. Home star Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) finished 15th.

Below are the best six drivers after FP1:

1.) Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1'45.191
2.) Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +0.865
3.) Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team) +1.059
4.) Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) +1.713
5.) Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) +1.746
6.) Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +1.840