Bautista fastest in Cremona final practice ahead of Locatelli

Full Italian WorldSBK 2025 Free Practice 3 Results – Alvaro Bautista rebounded from a tumultuous Friday to go fastest in Cremona final practice ahead of Andrea Locatelli.

The Spanish rider representing Aruba.it Ducati had endured a challenging opening day with three separate crashes across the two Friday sessions but his performance in FP3 was a testament to his mental fortitude and technical prowess.

Alvaro Bautista’s fastest lap of 1’28.439s set the benchmark for the Cremona final practice, placing him 0.150 seconds ahead of his closest rival Andrea Locatelli and signaling a dramatic turnaround in fortunes for the two-time World Superbike Champion.

The session itself unfolded under optimal track conditions with riders eager to capitalize on the final practice opportunity before Superpole.

Bautista clearly intent on putting his Friday woes behind him quickly found his rhythm. His Ducati Panigale V4 R looked planted and responsive as he consistently improved his times, culminating in the session-topping lap.

Pata Maxus Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli emerged as the leading Italian contender in FP3. Locatelli had shown strong pace throughout the weekend and briefly held the top spot in the session before Bautista’s late surge relegated him to second.

Locatelli’s home crowd support was palpable, and his lap times were consistently competitive as his Yamaha R1 appeared well-balanced allowing him to extract maximum performance on the technical Cremona layout.

Meanwhile Sam Lowes continued his impressive adaptation to the WorldSBK paddock by securing third place for ELF Marc VDS Racing Team, only 0.164 seconds off Bautista’s pace.

Nicolo Bulega who had been the standout performer on Friday by topping both FP1 and FP2, finished Cremona final practice in fourth place.

The Aruba.it Ducati rider had set the early pace in the opening sessions demonstrating both outright speed and race-long consistency. However, in FP3 Bulega was unable to replicate his earlier dominance finding himself just outside the top three.

Despite this, his performances across all sessions indicated that he remains a key figure in the battle for top honors at Cremona.

MORE WORLDSBK:

Italian WorldSBK 2025: Nicolo Bulega dominates Friday practice at Cremona

New 2025 World Superbike Championship Standings after Assen Race 2

GYTR GRT Yamaha’s Remy Gardner emerged as the session’s standout rider after delivering a solid performance to round out the top five ahead of Reigning WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu who took sixth for ROKiT BMW Motorrad.

Meanwhile Iker Lecuona delivered a standout performance for Honda HRC, finishing seventh ahead of Barni Spark’s Danilo Petrucci who took eighth after an impressive second-place finish in FP1.

Andrea Iannone and Dominique Aegerter completed the top ten for Team Pata GoEleven and GYTR GRT Yamaha, further illustrating the depth of talent and the competitive nature of the current WorldSBK grid.

However, Cremona final practice was not without incident. Bimota Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes suffered a crash at turn one early in FP3. Despite his efforts to recover the incident compromised his session and he ultimately finished in 17th place.

This setback was a disappointment for Lowes, who had shown promise in the earlier sessions and was expected to challenge for higher positions.

Italian WorldSBK 2025 Free Practice 3 Results – Cremona