The Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Official Team with Rizla made some positive steps forward during the two free practice sessions in the Teruel Round of the FIM Superbike World Championship at MotorLand Aragón today.
Much of the excitement happened during FP1, with quick single-lap pace recorded across the board. Toprak Razgatlıoğlu made a sizeable jump in performance to set the fifth fastest time of 1’50.659, while Michael van der Mark continued his competitive run with a best lap of 1’50.765, earning him eighth on combined times.
Conditions were different to the Free Practice sessions held last week at the same venue, particularly without cooler winds helping to keep the track temperatures down.
The 50-minute afternoon session saw higher temperatures again and provided a good reference for the two Pata Yamaha riders to test improvements to their race set-ups in anticipation for the two 16-lap races over the weekend.
The Saturday schedule is a carbon copy of last week’s Aragon WorldSBK round, with one final FP3 at 09:00 local time (GMT+2), followed by Tissot Superpole at 11:00 and Race 1 at 14:00.
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu: P5 – 1’50.659
“We are working to find more rear grip and now it is one step ahead of last weekend. I am feeling better so far. This morning I had a good feeling on the bike and we tried a different set-up to help the grip. This afternoon was not as good with the hotter temperatures, so I hope we will find an improvement on the morning set-up for these conditions. I am feeling OK but we need to make another step forward – the race is the important part and we will see what is possible.”
Michael van der Mark: P8 – 1’50.765
“It’s good to be back here this weekend, the conditions are a lot warmer than last time out, so we are still searching a little bit with the set-up of the bike, but the base is there right away. Everyone did a lot of laps last week, and today we focused a little bit on the rear tyre life and worked on the whole package to improve our race rhythm. This will come into play especially towards the second half of the race, where we have to improve. We did not do a “time attack” but I think we did some good quality, important work today.”
Paul Denning, Team Principal
“Same circuit as last weekend, but significantly different conditions with a 180-degree change in wind direction and higher temperatures. Michael’s Friday was more or less what we had aimed at, with step-by-step progression from last week to make the bike stronger towards the end of the race. The long run he did in FP2 will be really useful to help the team prepare for tomorrow. Toprak was quick in FP1, with a fifth best lap time but this afternoon in the hotter temperatures was a little bit of a struggle. He certainly wasn’t pushing for an outright lap time but we need to find a bit more performance, particularly in his R1’s turning ability, to provide confidence for him in these conditions.”
