SBK, Toprak shows his muscles in Portimao test, Bulega accuses 6 tenths!

At 6:15 p.m. Italian time, 5:15 p.m. local time, the first day of Superbike testing in Portimao came to an end. Compounded by the rain that fell during the night, which forced teams and riders to revise their plans, all efforts were concentrated in the afternoon, where Toprak Razgatlioglu played the starring role.

In fact, the BMW rider set Friday's benchmark time in 1'40.453, proving to be the only one able to go under the wall of 1'41 and putting between himself and Nicolò Bulega a good six tenths of a second gap. The dominator of the Australian round was the first of the pursuers on this first day, having to deal, however, with a gap that exceeds half a second from the Turkish champion.

It is a fact that in the Aruba team Bulega was the only one to take the track however, since Bautista preferred to save a day of testing, remaining stationary in the pits waiting for Saturday.

In third position instead lies the Yamaha of Locatelli, 35 thousandths from the number 11 Panigale V4, while fourth quickest time went to a surprising Xavi Vierge. The Spaniard indeed showed confidence riding the Honda, managing to get the better of Danilo Petrucci, author of the fifth chrono ahead of Gardner's Yamaha and Alex Lowes' Bimota.

Speaking of Bimota, in eighth position there was the KB998 of Axel Bassani, who picked up three tenths from his teammate while Sam Lowes and Montella closed out the top 10. Outside the top 10 is van der Mark's BMW as well as Iannone (Ducati), who did not go beyond 12th place, considering that the hunt for the dry lap time was not the priority for The Maniac.

Behind the Go Eleven rider in 13th position we can find Augusto Fernandez, in his first outing with the Yamaha R1 replacing the injured Johnny Rea. The former MotoGP rider had to contend with a gap from Toprak of one second and eight tenths, followed by Aegerter.

Among the Supersports, the fastest of all turned out to be Can Oncu on the Evan Bros. Yamaha R9.

Tomorrow, at 10 a.m. Italian time, the start of the second and final day of SBK testing in Portimao.