First day of WorldSBK practice for Kawasaki Puccetti Racing at the Motorland Aragon circuit in Alcaniz, Spain. The long wait is over, as are the winter tests, which Lucas Mahias and his technical staff carried out in preparation for the Superbike World Championship, which began this morning at the Spanish track, in cool, sunny conditions.
In the first free practice session, the French rider set a time of 1’51”115, which saw him place thirteenth at the end of the opening phase. Lucas could have done more if he hadn’t crashed in the final stages. A crash that did not only compromise his lap time but also seriously damaged his bike, the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing technicians having to work until just a few moments prior to session two to repair it.
Mahias made a cautious start to FP2 before pushing harder in the final stages to set a 1’51”278, very similar to his earlier time, which meant he rounded out day one in seventeenth place in the combined standings.
Tomorrow will see Mahias take part in the third free practice and Superpole, which will establish the grid positions for the first race of the season.
Motorland Aragon – Superbike World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Rea (Kawasaki) – 2) Bautista (Ducati) – 3) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 4) Gerloff (Yamaha) – 5) Rinaldi (Ducati) ………….. 17) Mahias (Kawasaki
Lucas Mahias
“It’s been a strange day. This morning I started quite well and set a good time, but then I crashed when I put a new tyre in. It was a bad crash and my bike was badly damaged. It was my mistake and I’m really sorry for our technicians as they had to work very hard to allow me to head back out on track. This afternoon’s session wasn’t easy. First I tried to find good feeling with my bike, but I was unable to improve on my best lap. Tomorrow we’ll continue to work on the set-up of my Ninja in FP3 and then I hope to run a good Superpole and, above all, a good race.”
