In FP2 Petrucci sets the fastest time. Bautista falls but is second. A technical problem stops Toprak a few minutes from the end. Bulega climbs up to fourth place. Eighteen riders in less than a second
August 9, 2024
A bit of everything happened in this second free practice session that took place in the late afternoon on the fantastic Portimao track. Garrett Gerloff started, but had to return to the garage due to technical problems, thus unable to defend his exceptional second place from this morning in FP1. Andrea Locatelli continued with a crash, while a few minutes later Remy Gardner had to leave the track due to smoke coming out of his Yamaha’s engine. The same thing happened later to Toprak Razgatlioglu who had to retire with a smoking M1000RR.
Smoke had already come out of the Turkish rider’s bike this morning at the end of the first session, just as Razgatlioglu was returning to his garage. The technicians of the official BMW team thought they had solved the problem, but were proven wrong by Toprak’s forced retirement in FP2. Just enough time to note the exit of the championship leader and we witnessed Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s fall, which preceded the final twist that came about five minutes from the end, when Alvaro Bautista, who had set the second fastest time shortly before, arrived uncomfortably and under braking at turn 10 and slipped into the sand of the escape route.
At that point, Danilo Petrucci’s first time (1’40”681), which the Terni native had set with about eight minutes to go, was no longer improved. The Spaniard confirmed his second place, 23 thousandths from the top, while with this morning’s time Toprak was third, 96 thousandths from Petrucci. The feverish Nicolò Bulega gritted his teeth and climbed up to fourth place, ahead of the Yamahas of Dominique Aegerter and Jonathan Rea.
Speaking of the other Italians, Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s tenth place should be considered positive despite the aforementioned fall. Axel Bassani finished fourteenth ahead of Andrea Iannone. The GoEleven team rider, who fell in the morning, has not yet found the right set up for his V4 and hopes to do so in tomorrow’s FP3. The fall in FP2 relegated Locatelli to seventeenth position ahead of his teammate Gardner, but to realize how level this Superbike is, it is enough to know that the Australian finished eighteenth, but less than a second behind Petrucci.
Tomorrow it will be very hot in Portimao. In every sense.
