The first day of action at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli ended with Alvaro Bautista and Michael Rinaldi in first and fourth position, respectively.
After an FP1 that wasn’t particularly indicative due to the bad weather conditions, the sun returned to shine before FP2, allowing the Aruba.it Racing - Ducati team riders to work consistently on their Ducati Panigale V4R machines.
Bautista notched up the first position with a time of 1’34.008, 117 thousandths of a second ahead of Razgatlioglu (Yamaha). On the other side of the garage, it was a promising Friday for Rinaldi, who closed in P4 (1'34.184) just 50 thousandths of a second behind Rea (Kawasaki).
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati #19)
"We started with some difficulties because of the weather conditions that did not help us this morning. In the afternoon, with the higher temperatures, I managed to regain that good feeling that I had had during the tests. We worked on the tire selection ahead of tomorrow's race. I think this will be a really important choice that will determine Race-1 results. However, the feelings are very positive."
Michael Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati #21)
"It was a positive day. We started with the setup we used in Portugal and managed to improve my feeling with the bike. The long-run made in FP2 gave me positive indications and we also had the chance to try the new tire introduced by Pirelli. We are still missing some details to be at the top but the gap from the podium positions is really small. I believe that if we continue to work in this direction, tomorrow we could have fun and entertain our fans."
After a technical issue that did not allow him to take advantage of FP1, Nicolò Bulega was the absolute star of FP2. The Italian rider worked well on his race pace with his Ducati Panigale V2 to close the session in first position with an impressive lap time in 1'37.620.
Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WSSP #11)
"I am very satisfied with what we have done this afternoon, also because in FP1 we were not able to lap much due to a technical issue. In FP2, I immediately found a good feeling, also thanks to the work made by my team. I hope we can get important results this weekend in Misano in front of our fans."
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