Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes ended the first day of practice at the Circuito de Navarra in first and tenth place respectively as the seventh round of the FIM Superbike World Championship got under way in warm and dry weather conditions.

The morning session, held on cooler asphalt than the super-heated afternoon period, delivered the best overall times of day one at the technical and very modern Navarra layout.

With Rea using settings on his machine which were first evaluated during a recent Barcelona test at the Montmelo circuit he proved the quickest rider of all in the morning, setting the new track best of 1’37.629.

Jonathan was 0.123 seconds faster than the next nearest rider in FP1 and almost all the riders were unable to increase their best pace in FP2 as the track temperatures rose and grip decreased.

Lowes declared himself happy with his first day and although tenth overall he was less than one second from his team-mate Rea’s new track best.

On Saturday morning Alex will concentrate on building a final starting set-up for the opening race on Saturday afternoon.

Both Rea and Lowes, like most of their rivals, had tested at the 3.933km long Navarra Circuit earlier this summer. They found the same mix of technical sections, occasional fast corners and significant bumps around the track surface on some corners.

Before Race One takes place over 23 laps of Navarra the KRT riders will take part in FP3, then Tissot Superpole, which will determine the grid positions for both the first race and the Superpole Race on Sunday morning.


Jonathan Rea, stated:

“We had two very different sessions today to confirm some items that we used at the recent Montmelo test. I felt OK getting up to speed with the track and the bumps. When the temperature came up in the afternoon it changed the track little bit, so the grip level dropped. We went back to some components that we had been using previously in FP2. Basically we confirmed that we had been going in the right way at the Montmelo tests.”

Alex Lowes, stated:

“I actually felt good on the bike today. Our lap times don’t reflect how I felt out on track. With the bike set-up we are looking to improve our corner entry, especially in the trail braking area, to be ready for Race One on Saturday. That’s the area we are going to focus on most of all. The circuit layout is fun - I like it.”


Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) came back to competitive action at Navarra after missing the Most round with a wrist injury. He finished 16th of the 22 riders in WorldSBK on Friday.

Isaac Vinales (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) was forced to withdraw from a home round in his native Spain after testing positive for Covid-19, just a day before the action was due to take place.

Loris Cresson (TPR Outdo Kawasaki) was 21st and his new team-mate Jayson Uribe (TPR Outdo Kawasaki) 22nd on day one at this new WorldSBK track.