English
Italiano
At 6 pm Italian time, 5 pm local time, the first day of the Superbike tests in Portimão came to an end. The day was affected by bad weather, only allowing the riders to test in the afternoon.
It's a fact that the reference of the round was Toprak Razgatlioglu at 1'40"650. The Turkish rider, back from surgery for his index finger and with the new factory chassis (since the super concessions one was rejected) ended the day ahead of everyone.
That was quite a sign from the world champion, against competitors that aren't certainly standing idly by. In fact, Axel Bassani and the Bimota reached a surprising second place, only 29 thousandths from the top. The Venetian rider showed his stuff in the finale, preceding Nicolò Bulega's Ducati as he got the better of Remy Gardner's Yamaha by a single thousandth.
As it turns out, the standings show the top four all within just 99 thousandths, while Rea was 5th with the Yamaha, 450 thousandths behind the Turkis rider. Behind him came Gerloff's Kawasaki, while Vierge's Honda was 7th followed, in turn, by Petrucci's Panigale, delayed by 719 thousandths.
Outside the ten, Alvaro Bautista got a second and a half off the time set by Toprak and the BMW. Ahead of him were the Lowes brothers and van der Mark, while Iannone preferred to remain in the pits, avoiding the track.
Back to the standings: behind Bautista were Locatelli and Redding, then Vickers, Aegerter, and Montella. Among the SSPs, Mahias on the Yamaha R9 was ahead of Oettl's Ducati, and further back was Rinaldi.
