Rea dominates opening practice at Magny-Cours

Jonathan Rea dominated the opening practice of the ninth round of the WorldSBK championship in Magny-Cours following a lengthy summer break.

The weekend’s first session at Magny-Cours saw a few familiar faces ascend to the top. The riders who are back in action after their summer break are once more in pursuit of their campaigns as usual after a week of upheaval in the rider market.

Jonathan Rea, who is headed for Yamaha, pushed his Kawasaki to the top slot in the opening session of the weekend. However, after a couple time attacks later in the race, the British rider barely managed to hold onto the lead.

Garrett Gerloff surprised everyone by finishing second in Free Practice 1 after making his way into the top two on his BMW through a time attack in the final moments of the session.

At the conclusion of Free Practice One, the Pata Yamaha’s two riders placed third and fourth. In the session, Toprak Razgatlioglu narrowly edged off his Italian teammate for third place and enjoyed a solid start to his weekend. Andrea Locatelli came in fourth after an impressive performance.

Meanwhile, Alex Lowes could not keep up with his teammates’ pace, finishing in fifth place and 0.4 seconds behind Rea.

Alvaro Bautista and Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who were both running the Aruba.it Racing – Ducatis, finished the first practice in sixth and seventh, respectively.

Scott Redding marked the second BMW rider to finish in the top ten as he placed eighth at the end of the session despite rumors about his future in 2024.

Axel Bassani forced a premature end to Free Practice 1 after crashing in the closing moments of the practice prompting a Red Flag. However, the young Italian rider got back up and proceeded to finish ninth on the timesheets.

Danilo Petrucci encountered a problem at the start of the practice session, but he was able to make it back to the track at the end of the session and record a lap time that landed him in tenth place.

2023 French WorldSBK Magny-Cours FP1 Results

Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Motorcycle	Lap Time
1	Jonathan Rea	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 36.900
2	Garrett Gerloff	USA	Bonovo Racing	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 37.057
3	Toprak Razgatlioglu	TUR	Pata Crescent Racing	Yamaha R1	1m 37.060
4	Andrea Locatelli	ITA	Pata Crescent Racing	Yamaha R1	1m 37.142
5	Alex Lowes	GBR	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 37.331
6	Alvaro Bautista	ESP	Aruba Ducati	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 37.467
7	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	ITA	Aruba Ducati	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 37.477
8	Scott Redding	GBR	BMW Motorrad WorldSBK	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 37.635
9	Axel Bassani	ITA	Motocorsa Racing	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 37.662
10	Danilo Petrucci	ITA	Barni Spark Racing	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 37.744
11	Michael van der Mark	NED	BMW Motorrad WorldSBK	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 37.878
12	Xavi Vierge	ESP	Team HRC	Honda CBR1000RR-R	1m 38.068
13	Philipp Oettl	GER	Go Eleven	Ducati Panigale V4 R	1m 38.114
14	Dominique Aegerter	SUI	GYTR GRT	Yamaha R1	1m 38.128
15	Iker Lecuona	ESP	Team HRC	Honda CBR1000RR-R	1m 38.218
16	Lorenzo Baldassarri	ITA	GMT 94	Yamaha R1	1m 38.283
17	Loris Baz	FRA	Bonovo Racing	BMW M 1000 RR	1m 38.286
18	Remy Gardner	AUS	GYTR GRT	Yamaha R1	1m 38.316
19	Bradley Ray	GBR	Motoxracing	Yamaha R1	1m 38.364
20	Isaac Vinales	ESP	TPR by Vinales Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 39.026
21	Lucas Mahias	FRA	Puccetti Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 39.713
22	Hannes Soomer	EST	MIE Racing	Honda CBR1000RR-R	1m 40.029
23	Oliver Konig	CZE	Orelac Racing	Kawasaki ZX-10RR	1m 40.471
	Hafizh Syahrin	MAL	MIE Racing	Honda CBR1000RR-R	No Time Set