SBK Donington FP2: Where are Ducati’s rivals? Nasty crash for Mackenzie

Ducati confirms itself at the top in Great Britain as well: there are seven in the top 10. The first of the others is Bimota, Kawasaki good and Rea too.

Superbike Friday at Donington Park Circuit ended with the fastest time by Nicolo Bulega in FP2. The Aruba Ducati rider clocked a 1'25"460, confirming himself as the best after already leading the FP1 in the morning. He has laid the groundwork to try to win on a track where he has never triumphed, except in Supersport.

Bulega is the fastest of all, but overall Ducati is proving superior on what in the past was not one of the best tracks for the Panigale V4 R. In third place is Iker Lecuona, 0.250 off his teammate. Both Aruba Ducati riders set their best laps at the start of the session and then focused on race pace.

At the end of FP2, Yari Montella grabbed the second time, finishing 0.207 behind Bulega. An excellent performance by the Barni Spark Racing Team rider, increasingly at ease with his Ducati. Behind him is Alex Lowes on the Bimota, followed by the Panigales of Tarran Mackenzie, Alvaro Bautista, and Lorenzo Baldassarri.

It should be noted that with 8'27" remaining, the red flag was shown due to a nasty crash for Mackenzie at Turn 12. The Briton was quickly assisted and later declared conscious, which came as a relief.

After a while, a replay of the incident was shown, with his Ducati moving around a lot before throwing him to the ground. The fact that at one point the rider’s face was shown was good news. He was, of course, taken by ambulance to the Medical Center for initial checks. Once the barriers were reset, the second Superbike free practice session resumed.

Eighth time for Garrett Gerloff on Kawasaki: the Texan needs to redeem a poor SBK round at Misano and wants to try to stay in the top 10 this weekend, in which it seems very difficult to be able to take on the Ducati armada.

The best Honda is Jonathan Rea’s, already bright in the first free practice session and then tenth in the second. Ahead of him is Thomas Bridewell on the Advocates Superbike team’s Ducati. On the six-time world champion’s CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP there are some updates that the HRC team is testing in an attempt to improve.

Axel Bassani on the other Bimota is only thirteenth, behind the Ducati duo Sam Lowes–Surra and ahead of the Yamaha R1s of Xavi Vierge and Remy Gardner. The Iwata manufacturer struggled a lot in these Superbike free practices at Donington Park. Andrea Locatelli is even eighteenth, just ahead of Stefano Manzi and behind the BMW of the returning Danilo Petrucci. Miguel Oliveira on the other M 1000 RR is twentieth; something important didn’t work.