Manzi made it clear that his desire to keep the title fight alive is still strong, and the Italian had the pace from the start of FP1 onwards, setting a very decent 1’44.190 in the morning. His team-mate was just +0.123 behind in second to complete a great morning for the Dutch-run squad. Valentin Debise and Lorenzo Dalla Porta also finished the first session of the day in the Top 10; eighth and ninth respectively.
Manzi had a small crash early in FP2 which hampered his chances of topping the time sheets, but the Italian clearly still had great potential on his R6 as he took sixth in the session and fifth overall. Meanwhile, Navarro was ready to shine at the head of the pack, setting a 1’43.849 and topping the day as well as the afternoon. Amazingly, however, the top three on combined were covered by just +0.34 of a second. Debise also found a great feeling in the afternoon, moving into a solid fourth overall, just one spot ahead of the ever-improving Dalla Porta.
Nicolas Spinelli (VFT Racing WEBIKE Yamaha) was unfortunately ruled out of proceedings after he was diagnosed with left hand contusions which got progressively worse over the course of the day.