Jonas Folger got underway the tenth meeting of the 2021 WSBK season in the top 15 free practice one.
After the ninth stop of the season in Barcelona, all participants, and teams of the FIM Superbike World Championship mostly continued Sunday evening to the Circuito de Jerez - Ángel Nieto in southern Spain already. So, with only a short breather, the next World Championship round began on Friday morning.
In stable conditions, Jonas Folger was able to take a small upward trend from Catalonia to Andalusia. The 28-year-old BMW rider started the weekend with a positive first free practice session, placing his BMW M 1000 RR in 15th position, just 1.243 seconds off the top of the top-class grid.
In free practice two in the afternoon, the Bavarian rider continued to work with his crew on the set-up of his Superbike, missing his lap time by two tenths of a second compared to the morning. After FP3 on Saturday morning, the decisive phase of the weekend begins for Folger and the entire field with Superpole at 11:10 and the first race at 14:00 local time.
#94 Jonas FOLGER (Bonovo Action / MGM Racing Performance, BMW M 1000 RR)
FP1: P15 - 1´41.317 / FP2: P18 - 1´41.522
“Our start to the weekend was pretty good overall. In the first session we mainly worked on the electronics and achieved decent lap times, that were quite okay. The next thing is to make a few fine adjustments to the geometry to take a little weight off the front. For now, it is still a bit front-heavy, which is a bit of a disadvantage in corner entry. Hopefully this step will bring further improvements so that we can continue to improve. But overall, it was okay for the first day. I hope that we can maintain our position tomorrow and even move a little further forward.”
#ESPWorldSBK - Combined Free Practice Times (FP1/FP2):
1 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-6RR / 1´39.671 (FP2)
2 Michael Ruben RINALDI / ITA / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R / 1´40.070 +0.399 (FP2)
3 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / 1´40.074 +0.403 (FP1)
16 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / Bonovo Action MGM Racing Performance / BMW M 1000 RR / 1´41.371 +1.646 (FP1)
#ESPWorldSBK – Time Schedule for Saturday September 25th (CET):
09:00 - 09:30 FP3
11:10 - 11:25 Superpole
14:00 Race 1 (20 Laps - 88.460 km)