Day one of the fifth WorldSBK round has concluded at the Donington Park circuit in the UK.
For Bradley Ray, who competes for the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team, this is a home round, and so arguably the most important on the 2024 calendar.
Heading out onto the technical English track for free practice this morning, Ray worked hard with his team in dry conditions, placing sixteenth at the end of the session with a time of 1’28”019.
In the afternoon’s second session, Bradley was able to improve on his best time, putting in a 1’27”247 with which he closed seventeenth, just 1.234 seconds from provisional pole!
A good result that augers well for tomorrow, when the young British rider will tackle Superpole and the first of the weekend’s races.
“Both team and rider have worked really well today. We’ve been able to significantly close the gap to the front and lie just 1.2 seconds back. This leaves us optimistic ahead of Superpole and tomorrow’s first race.”
“Overall, I’m really pleased with today’s FP1 and FP2. We made a good step forward, particularly in the second session, and found good lap times. Our position doesn’t really reflect our hard work today and we need to stick with the other Yamahas, which is our main goal! I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
