It was a dominant performance from the Italian, who walked away uninjured from a low-side crash shortly after posting the fastest time of the day in the cooler conditions of FP1 this morning. With track temperature rising considerably ahead of FP2 Locatelli's domination continued, as he again topped the timesheet, but this time with a margin of almost a second.
GMT94 Yamaha WorldSSP Supported rider, Jules Cluzel ended the opening day fourth overall, with the Kallio Racing Yamaha WorldSSP Supported pairing of Isaac Viñales and Hannes Soomer hot on his heels in sixth and seventh place respectively. GMT94 Yamaha's Corentin Perolari also made it into the top 10, ending the day eighth on combined times.
It proved a tough opening day in Jerez for the Yamaha bLU cRU WorldSSP teammates, Andy Verdoïa and Galang Hendra Pratama. Both riders banked valuable experience in the two free practice sessions today, which they finished in 16th and 19th place respectively, but the two WorldSSP rookies are confident that more track time will bring further improvements tomorrow.
For the first time, two WorldSSP races will be contested in a single weekend, with Race 1 taking place at 15.15 CEST on Saturday and Race 2 at 12.30 CEST on Sunday. Both races will be contested over 17 laps and the conditions on Saturday promise to be especially punishing, with the ambient air temperature forecast to reach the high 30s.
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