The EICMA Italian Round burst into life as Iker Lecuona laid down the law in Free Practice 1, putting his Aruba.it Racing - Ducati machine at the very top of the timesheets. It was a tight, intense 45-minute session for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field, and the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati duo spent the morning trading blows. When the dust settled, Lecuona claimed the benchmark with a 1’28.331s (though his absolute best lap of the session was clocked at 1’28.278s).
Right behind him was teammate Nicolo Bulega, finishing just 0.119s adrift after posting a 1’28.397s (and a gap of +0.119s in the final order). But it wasn't all smooth sailing for Bulega. Right at the end of the session, the #11 suffered a slow speed crash at Turn 10, planting his machine in the gravel trap. Thankfully, he was able to walk away from the fall unhurt.
Behind the factory Ducati pair, Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) snatched third with a very late lap, clocking a 1’28.582s to slot in +0.304s off the pace. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) also dipped into the 1’28s bracket, securing fourth with a 1’28.752s that left him almost five tenths, specifically +0.474s, behind Lecuona's flyer.
Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) endured a proper rollercoaster of a session. His morning started with a delayed start while the team frantically worked on his Panigale V4 R machine, and things got worse when he crashed at Turn 13 with 28 minutes remaining on the clock. Yet, he bounced back brilliantly in the second half of FP1, hauling his bike up the order with a 1’28.847s to take fifth (+0.569s). That late surge bumped Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing) down a spot, with the #67 ending up a microscopic 0.004s away from the #5 and +0.573s off the leader.
Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) had been running comfortably inside the top six before Baldassarri and Montella's late charges pushed him down to seventh. Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) claimed eighth with a 1’29.063s, keeping himself within a second of Lecuona's benchmark. Alvaro Bautista (Barni Spark Racing Team) opened his weekend—and his team’s home round—with ninth place, while Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) rounded out the top ten.
