The second WorldSBK championship round got underway today at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain. This is the home round for Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Tito Rabat and, following a recent two-day test at this track, the Spaniard and his team are aiming to improve the performance of their Ninja ZX-10RR KRT Factory Replica.
During the morning’s first free practice, Rabat set a fastest time of 1’42”647, while in FP2, and given the decidedly higher temperatures, he was unable to improve on his earlier reference (1’42”722). The Spaniard therefore placed twentieth in the combined standings at the end of day 1.
Tito will be back on track tomorrow for the Superpole and the first of the weekend’s WorldSBK races.
Circuit de Catalunya – Barcelona – Spain
Superbike World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Bulega (Ducati) – 2) Bautista (Ducati) – 3) Razgatlioglu (BMW) – 4) Van der Mark – 5) Rea (Yamaha) ……… 20) Rabat (Kawasaki)
Tito Rabat
“I’m not very happy with how today’s practices have gone. We started with the set-up we’d identified during testing but the weather and track conditions were different today and so we were unable to improve as we’d hoped. For tomorrow we’ll try some different solutions in order to run a good Superpole and score a solid position for the race. Big thanks to the team as they’ve done a great job as ever.”
