WorldSSP Free Practice 1: Stefano Manzi leads the way with new lap record the Grand Ridge Brewery Australian Round
The FIM Supersport World Championship has finally begun for 2024, with proceedings kicking off at the Grand Ridge Brewery Australian Round at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.
While temperatures were much cooler than riders have seen throughout their Official Test, this didn’t stop lap times from tumbling well below Lap Record pace.
Stefano Manzi [Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing] was the man to beat in Free Practice 1 of the FIM World Supersport Championship. Not only topped the timesheets but also smashed the World Supersport outright lap record to set a 1:31.939.
Marcel Schroetter [MV Agusta Reparto Corse] followed closely by only 0.089 seconds off the Italian rider to finish the session in second place with a 1:32.028.
Yari Montella [BARNI Spark Racing Team] and Federico Caricasulo [Motozoo ME AIR Racing] were the first to exit pit lane, followed by a long train of World Supersport machinery.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Australian rider Oli Bayliss [D34G Racing WorldSSP Team] however, suffering from a technical issue on the opening lap of his only Free Practice session at Turn 8, and again at Turn 1 in the later half of the session. With these issues, Bayliss was unable to set a lap time during FP1.
While Yari Montella was the fastest rider in testing, he couldn’t quite replicate this pace in Free Practice 1 to finish in fourth place, finishing the session less than a tenth away from Adrian Huertas [Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team] in third.
The top six from WorldSSP FP1:
- Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) 1’31.939
- Marcel Schroetter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) +0.089s
- Adrian Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) +0.320s
- Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) +0.339s
- Bahattin Sofuoglu (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) +0.382s
- Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha) +0.466s
20. Tom Tomparis (Stop and Seal Racing) +2.302
