WSBK Portimão J1: Johnny Rea 0.07 ahead of Álvaro Bautista

With only four events left, twelve races, in Portugal, France, Argentina and Qatar, Jonathan Rea topped the provisional standings for the World Championship in Portimão with 81 points ahead of Álvaro Bautista. and 213 on Alex Lowes. Loris Baz, fourth at Misano and Donington, could hope a catwalk in the Algarve, before his home race at Magny-Cours on September 28 and 29. Sylvain Barrier was riding as a wildcard.

To Johnny Rea, morale was good: “ Right now the situation is perfect, but at the start of the season I was pretty depressed. But we never gave up on coming back to fight for the title. During this time, we felt like we were constantly running up a mountain that we eventually climbed because we kept working. »

“It was a huge challenge for me, because in recent years I was able to achieve a few victories at the start of the season and get a head start on my opponents. So I could approach the races very carefully and control the lead. This year I participated in every race from the first to the last lap, without even thinking about giving it my all. The fact that we made up the points and could even take a lead shows how strong our team is. The best team in the entire paddock, to which I am grateful. »

According to Alvaro Bautista (Ducati) back with his convalescing shoulder from Laguna Seca, “ The two days of testing we did here last week were very useful, although I preferred to rest my shoulder on the second day because it was the first time I returned to the bike since my injury at Laguna Seca. »

“I still had a few days to recover, but during this weekend we changed our approach to try to rest the shoulder this Friday to be able to face the races in the best possible conditions. »

“Luckily the two tests I did at this circuit between January and now are a big help, we have some milestones, I know the track better and the result is a little easier. »

According to Alex Lowes, third in the Championship: “ I am ready for the second part of the season, where the challenge will be to maintain third place in the Championship, and I must fight for the podium in each race in these last four rounds. We were really strong in the last tests in Portimão, where I set the best lap of my career on this track to finish at the top of the standings, which shows that the bike is working well. »

On the side of home Pirelli, the manufacturer had provided a new SCX solution which, compared to the SCX solutions used until now, used a reinforced structure while maintaining an extremely soft and high-performance compound. WorldSBK continued to use only 125/70 front tires and 200/65 rear tires. In total there were six slick solutions available to riders, two front and four rear. For the front, Pirelli offered the standard SC1 in 125/70 and soft rubber as well as the SC2 X1071 development in medium rubber. There were two rear race options, both on soft rubber: the standard SC0 in 200/65 is actually joined to the X1351 development, which debuted at Jerez and uses the same rubber as the standard SC0, but with a new construction guaranteeing improved performance thanks to a larger floor space.

Michael van der Mark spoke of his parents, I wouldn't say I have a rich family behind me, just hard working people. My father has a freight forwarding business and when I first started running it was a difficult move for the business. I'm pretty calm, but sometimes aggressive and angry. I think it comes from my mother, my Indonesian part. That with my Indonesian roots is funny because a lot of people didn't know that. When you see my mother, I look like her. It became public knowledge when I posted a video about Indonesian food on Instagram. There are a lot of fans in Indonesia and I really hope we will race there soon. »

Sylvain Barrier made his return to the World Championship. The Frenchman, who twice won the European Superstock 1000 Championship with BMW, brought a fifth Ducati Panigale V4R to the WSBK starting grid. Barrier and his Brixx Ducati team used the official Superbike tests on August 24-25 for their preparation. Aged 30, “Syl’20” was almost three seconds behind the best test time set by Alex Lowes (Yamaha), but was faster than Honda factory rider Ryuichi Kiyonari. In 2012 and 2013, Sylvain Barrier won the European Superstock 1000 Championship with BMW then moved up to the Superbike World Championship. In three years, he suffered several serious injuries and raced in 2017 in MotoAmerica, then since 2018, in the British Superbike Championship.

FP1: Morning advantage for Jonathan Rea:

During the first free practice session, Loris Baz was the first to hit the track, and Jordi Torres the first to fall without gravity. Johnny Rea set the tone in 1'41.931 ahead Alex Lowes at 0.1, Toprak Razgatlioglu at 0.2 and Loris Baz at 0.6.

With 20 minutes to go, Jonathan Rea still dominated in 1'41.931 ahead of Alex Lowes at 0.1, Toprak Razgatlioglu at 0.2, Álvaro Bautista at 0.4, Leon Haslam at 0.5, Michael van der Mark at 0.5 and Loris Baz at 0.6.

Bautista moved into second 11 minutes from the checkered flag, 0.078 behind Rea. Haslam was fifth, bringing a third Kawasaki into the top three. Tom Sykes fell without seriousness with his BMW in turn 14.

Results of the first free practice session:

Start of FP2 in pictures:

FP2: Rea maintains the best time

During the second free practice session, the first to improve was Tom Sykes, who had crashed in the morning with his official BMW, and who initially climbed into twelfth position, 0.8 behind Rea. With only one motorcycle per rider, life is not always easy, especially in the event of a fall.

Bautista (below) had the best time of the second session, but not of the day because Rea had ridden faster in the morning.

Most of the drivers were doing long runs in preparation for the races, and the times therefore did not drop in the middle of the session. It was then thatAlessandro Delbianco fell with his Honda Althea in Turn 14 without gravity. By the time the Fireblade was brought back to the pits and repaired, the Italian's session was over.

At the end of the session, with a slightly higher temperature, and new tires for some, a few drivers returned to the track, including Chaz Davies who moved up to tenth position, 0.7 behind Johnny Rea.

Rea finished the day in first position ahead of Bautista, Lowes and Razgatlioglu, while Baz was eighth and Barrier nineteenth.

Combined results of free trials:

Reference times:

Test record: 1'40.705 by Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) in 2018

Lap record: 1'42.304 by Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) in 2018

Provisional classification of the Superbike World Championship:

Ben Spies was in Portimao to celebrate 10 years of his WSBK title:

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