The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, in Portimão, is set to host the final round of the MotoGP world championship on November 22.
If in the other categories, many drivers have already raced on this track as part of the FIM CEV in 2014, 2015 and 2016, such as Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi, Jorge Martin, Nicolò Bulega, Arón Canet, Remy Gardner, Stefano Manzi, Jorge Navarro, Albert Arenas, Jaume Masiá, Tony Arbolino, John McPhee, Tatsuki Suzuki, Raúl Fernández, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Kaito Toba, Ayumu Sasaki, Khairul Idham Pawi, Davide Pizzoli, Andrea Migno, Alonso López, Denis Foggia, Jeremy Alcoba, Celestino Vietti, Stefano Nepa, Filip Salač, etc., alone Joan Mir, Miguel Oliveira and Fabio Quartararo are the MotoGP riders who have already put their wheels there.
The Portuguese circuit will therefore be open to holders of the premier category for a familiarization session on the handlebars of production motorcycles, Wednesday October 14.
Likewise, Michelin has little data on the surface, and MotoGP test riders are therefore invited to use the rubber on Wednesday and Thursday of the same week.
If this last point does not seem to pose any particular problem, and will allow us to see in action Jorge Lorenzo (yamaha), Dani Pedrosa (KTM), Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki), Michele Pirro (Dozens), Stefan bradl (Honda) as well as Aleix Espargaró, Bradley Smith et Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia), it is not necessarily quite the same for riders wanting to familiarize themselves with the handlebars of a production motorcycle.
So, for example, the KTM brand does not have a hyper-sports car in its catalog and, consequently, Pol I will espargaro, who will ride for Honda next year, has already announced that he will use a 1000 CBR to explore the Portuguese track.
Miguel Oliveira deliberately remained evasive on the subject, but we know that the Tech3 rider has already participated (and won) a competition at the same place in 2016 riding a Yamaha R1 from the local Parkalgar Racing team… And that he has his own R1 prepared. Be careful, however, not to suffer the same agonies as those suffered by Fabio Quartararo following his test at Paul Ricard.
As for Brad Binder, it will be a surprise when Iker Lecuona will abstain…
At Yamaha, fabio quartararo will skip these tests on the eve of the French Grand Prix, while the drivers of the VR46 Riders Academy finally agreed to participate in this session, although Valentino Rossi had initially announced at a press conference that it wanted to organize a private session on another date.
On the “series drivers” side, we will therefore have Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci, Jack Miller, Pecco Bagnaia, Johann Zarco, Álex Márquez, Takaaki Nakagami, Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales, Franco Morbidelli, Pol Espargaró, Álex Rins, Brad Binder, Miguel Oliveira, Tito Rabat and Joan Mir.
Michelin will bring 4 types of front tires and 4 types of rear tires for MotoGP, plus Power Performance slicks for production motorcycles.
Last anecdote on what promises to be a day as atypical as it is relaxed, the pilots declined the organizer's proposal to set up a charter plane to travel from the south of Portugal to France. Instead, we will see a flotilla of private planes landing in Paris and on the Le Mans runway from Wednesday evening...
Finally, those who do not participate in this familiarization day will still be able to catch up on the Grand Prix weekend, since according to our information the drivers will have 3 hours of testing on Friday instead of the usual hour and a half (2×45 minutes).
