From Jerez to Portimao
It started today in Portugal, on the circuit Portimaothe first of the two collective tests which will put an end to the Superbike pre-season preparations. In fact, once the last km to be covered tomorrow on the Portuguese track have been completed, all the teams will pack their bags to organize the transfer to Australiawhere the first round of the world championship will be held at Phillip Island on February 24th and 25th.
Close to another record
After Nicolò Bulega's impressive track record at Jerez de la Frontera, all eyes were on the Ducati rookie, even though the first two hours of the test featured Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu. The former took the lead with the Yamaha in the initial stages of the test, and then returned to the top of the standings after the momentary overtaking of the Turkish rider, who already seemed competitive with the BMW in Spain just like the former Kawasaki. The latter team also tested a new swingarm with Alex Lowes (then forced to return to the pits due to technical problems), in a phase of the test in which Philipp Oettl also fell without any consequences. After 2.00pm, Bulega entered the scene by setting the best time in 1:39.932, becoming the only driver capable of descending under the 1:40 wall, with the same finish line missed by just 75 thousandths by Razgatlioglu. At that point the virtual podium remained unchanged until the last hour of testing, with Rea consolidating third place, moving within a tenth of Bulega, who was also able to improve his performance in 1:39.913, extending the lead over Razgatlioglu to 94 thousandths. Andrea Locatelli's Yamaha also entered time attack mode in the final minutes, with the final 5th place behind Remy Gardner. Further back is the reigning world champion Alvaro Bautista, eighth and mainly at work with the development of his Panigale V4 R.
Finally, it is worth underlining the presence on the track of some great protagonists who will participate in the next world championship MotoGP. While waiting for the official tests scheduled for Sepang on 6 February, Portimao mainly saw the faces of the home team again Ducatiall of them riding road motorcycles and engage in a training session: from the reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia to Enea Bastianiniup to the Pramac team duo made up of Martin and Morbidelli and the VR46 team, made up of Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio. Also present Luca Marini (despite being a Honda rider) together with Marquez brothers of the Gresini team, but above all a great former rival of the eight-time world champion as Valentino Rossi, riding the road Yamaha R1. In their specific ranking, the fastest time was recorded by Bagnaia, who stopped the clock on1:43.090, with Marini two tenths behind. Further away the 'Doctor' in 1:44.703, although there remains a question mark over the times of Alex and Marc Marquez, who they didn't mount the transponder for recording their lap times.
Portimao Test, Day 1: time table (top-10)
| POS. | PILOT | MOTORCYCLE | TIME/GAP |
| 1 | Nicolò Bulega | Ducati | 1:39.913 |
| 2 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | BMW | +0.094 |
| 3 | Jonathan Rea | Yamaha | +0.148 |
| 4 | Remy Gardner | Yamaha | +0.355 |
| 5 | Andrea Locatelli | Yamaha | +0.357 |
| 6 | Sam Lowes | Ducati | +0.550 |
| 7 | Michael van der Mark | BMW | +0.723 |
| 8 | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | +0.760 |
| 9 | Xavi Vierge | Honda | +0.816 |
| 10 | Alex Lowes | Kawasaki | +0.866 |
#Superbike #Day #Portimao #FormulaPassion
