SBK Magny-Cours, FP1: Three Ducatis at the top – Vierge best of the rest

Magny-Cours is enjoying glorious summer weather with temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius. As the weather is set to remain the same throughout the weekend, the riders and teams are preparing for a battle in the heat, in which tyre durability will play a key role.

Many teams from the Superbike and Supersport World Championships have been testing during the long summer break, some of them at Magny-Cours in central France. Most of the injured riders have made a good recovery; of the 22 regular Superbike riders, the only one missing is Ducati privateer Tarran Mackenzie, who suffered a heavy crash at his home race at Donington Park. His place remains vacant, and there are no wildcard riders either.

At the start of the first 45-minute Superbike practice session on Friday at 10.20 am, the air temperature was 23 degrees Celsius and the track temperature was 30 degrees. After five minutes, Bahattin Sofuoglu (Motoxracing Yamaha) crashed in Turn 2, and the session was subsequently interrupted to allow the track to be cleared. When the session resumed, Sam Lowes (Marc VDS Ducati) set the first notable fastest time of 1:35.840 minutes. By way of comparison: Toprak Razgatlioglu (BMW) has held the pole position record since 2025 with a time of 1:34.930 mins; the Turkish rider set the fastest race lap in the sprint that same year in 1:35.500 mins.

At the halfway stage, the top nine were within one second of each other, with the top five all on Ducatis. In the final 15 minutes, the field was thoroughly shaken up, largely due to the difference between those who went in pursuit of faster times on a new rear tyre and those who did not. Championship leader Nicolo Bulega catapulted himself to the top with his factory Ducati 7 minutes before the end with a time of 1:35.556 min; no one else came close to this time.

Bulega was followed by Sam Lowes and Iker Lecuona, with Yamaha factory rider Xavi Vierge surprisingly finishing fourth, whilst his team-mates all finished outside the top 12. Sixth and seventh places went to two more Ducati riders, Alberto Surra and Lorenzo Baldassarri, followed by BMW factory rider Danilo Petrucci. Garrett Gerloff took the only Ducati in the field to ninth place, Alex Lowes the fastest Bimota in tenth, and Jake Dixon was eleventh as the best Honda rider.

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