World Superbike: More From The Portimao Test
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After two days of testing in Portimao ahead of the Pirelli Portuguese Round, the 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship's Ducati factory riders will walk away with a mixed bag of results. While both riders in red looked fast in the limited time available, Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) looks to be getting closer to his 2024 form than it seemed in Phillip Island. In the case of Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), while he saw half the already limited amount of track time due to his decision not to test on Friday, he looked uncharacteristically slow in his Day 2 time, finishing ninth.
Many of the grid's Ducati riders enjoyed a very strong start to the season. Phillip Island's Round 1 saw Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) earn his career-first WorldSBK hat-trick, propelling himself out to an early lead in the Riders' Championship. Alongside him in the garage, Alvaro Bautista had a strong weekend, finishing P3 in Race 1, and P2 in Race 2, the only hiccup coming in the Tissot Superpole Race, in which he finished in P19 after a Turn 6 crash set him far behind the rest of the grid.
Unfortunately, once again, rain made its presence felt in Portuguese testing, giving déjà vu to the preseason event held here in late January. In essence, the rainfall limited teams to half days each day, a tough break for what has already been a limited preseason. While the rain was present, riders had more dry running time than they saw in the prior preseason event. Here are some of the takeaways for the pair in their own words:
While Bulega earned P2 on both days, he was fortunate that he walked away from the test uninjured as in Turn 11, he crashed off of the track requiring a trip to the medical center, while they gave him the all-clear shortly after, it ate into his already limited time on track. On his experience across the testing days, Bulega said "it was a bit of a difficult test for us because we worked hard to find a good feeling, but it didn't arrive. This morning [Day 2] I had a big crash on a very fast corner here in Portimao. Fortunately, I am good, but it was more difficult to work because we lost some time as a result, then later the rain made it a difficult and strange test. At the end of the session, the last 15 minutes, we were a bit better; we still have lots of work to do but in the end, we were a lot better."
Alvaro Bautista elected to only take to the track on Saturday's Day 2, and despite being uncharacteristically low on the time sheet, the veteran rider does not seem concerned about his odds in the upcoming Portuguese Round. "We were able to do some laps, especially in the morning, we started the day with the same setup that we finished the last round with, in Australia." said Bautista, "The feeling was good, I felt good on the bike. We made some small changes but nothing big. In the afternoon with the rain, the feeling was a bit worse because I couldn't feel the tires as easily. In general, in the morning I felt good, the pace wasn't too bad, but we will have to see what the conditions will be like on the race weekend, we prepared the base setup and we will adapt the package from there."
More, from a news release by WorldSBK:
On the heels of a difficult season opening weekend in Phillip Island, the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team knew their work was cut out for them. 2024's defending Champion, Toprak Razgatlioglu looked a step slower than his usual self, and Michael van der Mark struggled to place within the scoring positions, landing a pair of P14's in Race 2 and the Tissot Superpole Race after a Turn 1 crash ruled him out of Race 1. Fortunately for the German team, at Portimao test event held March 14-15th ahead of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship's Pirelli Portuguese Round seemed to bear fruit with a step forward in terms of pace and feeling.
On top of what was already a complicated preseason thanks to poor weather across both testing events first in Jerez then in Portimao; BMW was dealt a tough hand as they needed that time on track more than most in order to fine-tune their newly homologated M 1000 RR. Phillip Island has never been a particularly strong circuit for either rider, as only Toprak has won one race there, and that sole race win was in 2020 during his time with Yamaha. This 2025 season-opening trip Down Under was fraught with issues as both riders seemed to struggle with the new bike.
In Portimao however, BMW look to have turned a new leaf, with both riders not only being fast, but consistently fast. Both riders prior in their careers have enjoyed more success at Portimao than at Phillip Island. Michael van der Mark won the Superpole Race here in 2021. Toprak for his part has won six races here and earned rostrum finishes another 7 times. BMW Team Manager Shaun Muir was pleased to see the progress exhibited by his riders.
“We're back in Portimao, which has always been a strong reference for us," said Muir. "Despite some lost track time due to the weather, both riders managed an average of 50 laps per day, so we can't be too disappointed. Michael had a solid test, working through a list of setup items and making steady progress. On the other side of the garage, Toprak focused on re-establishing his base setting, quickly finding a strong race pace while fine-tuning his setup. His 10-lap race runs have been some of the most consistent we’ve seen with this package. With only three fully productive pre-season test days before Australia, these two days have been an important extension of that work. The team has made clear progress, and we're seeing growing confidence in both riders. Now, with two weeks until the race, we feel we have a solid base to build on and are in a much stronger position heading into FP1.”
While the new M 1000 RR platform certainly still lacks polish, and there is more to yet improve, the test results after Day 2 in Portimao certainly seems to have put wind in BMW's sails. While rain again made an appearance in Portimao across both days of testing, both days had at least a portion of the day in which the track was dry, a key for BMW's mission to return to their 2024 form. While it is of course uncertain the weather which will be present in two weeks' time for the race weekend, it is certainly a good sign for the German manufacturer's factory team that their riders are closer to being back on pace for their stated goal of winning both the Riders' and Manufacturers' Championship this year. BMW Motorrad Technical Director Chris Gonschor gave his impressions following their positive finish after two days of testing in Portimao.
Gonschor said: “We are happy to be back in Europe, back in Portimao after a successful race last year. It’s a beautiful track, and luckily, we had some sun. It was a bit more complicated again, but we got some dry laps in, and we could prepare the race bikes for the weekend. We are looking forward to the race. Both riders in the top four with consistent lap times was a big step forward. Coming back to Portimao is always great, and this rollercoaster racetrack is very demanding—for the riders, for the engineers—but fascinating for the fans. So, it’s perfect to be here, and it was good to have, like I said, a few hours in dry conditions to prepare the race setup and application."
More, from a news release by WorldSBK:
The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship paddock welcomed Augusto Fernandez (Pata Maxus Yamaha) to the paddock for his first ever WorldSBK event at the test days in Portimao. Fernandez joined the team after Jonathan Rea suffered a several fractures in his left foot after a crash prior to the Australian Round. He remains without an official timeline, but it was announced shortly after Rea returned to Europe that he would miss the Pirelli Portuguese round, hence the arrival of Fernandez.
Rea's highside crash in Phillip Islands Turn 2 sent his Yamaha R1 cartwheeling down onto his left foot, culminating in the Spanish 2022 Moto2 champion being called in to replace the six-time champion Rea. Fernandez has since been a test driver in MotoGP as well as a grid rider for Red Bull GasGas Tech3 from 2023-2024, his best result coming in his rookie year when he took home a 4th place finish from Le Mans. Only becoming a WorldSBK rider a matter of weeks ago, Fernandez has had his work cut out for him in adapting to the different style of bike, however in testing so far, Fernandez hasn't been far off pace, so far landing a pair of P13 finishes after the two days of testing in Portimao.
On the differences between the bikes and the things he's needed to adapt to, Fernandez said "The tires are a big thing, they're completely different to what I'm used to. Then of course, the bike is different…A lot of things, but I'm getting used to it, I'm happy with the team, I want to thank them for the job they've done, it hasn't been an easy two days but we've managed to learn a lot from these days and we're still not 100% ready for the race, but we will get there."
The test in Portimao ahead of Round 2's action was highly anticipated by not only Fernandez who is still acclimating to WorldSBK, but by a grid of teams who didn't have adequate time to prepare for the season thanks to inclement weather mitigating testing potential in the preseason. Now that these two days are in the books, unfortunately the rain has played a considerable role in the events on-track for Fernandez and the rest of the grid. Rain aside, 27-year-old Fernandez is taking the bull by the horns and accepting the challenge.
"We didn't have the best of weather, so not a lot of track time, but in the end luckily, we had the last hour. It was an important one because we had some things on our mind that we wanted to try out and to forward the learning process." said Fernandez "I'm happy how everything went, we managed to improve the lap time at the very end, so I'm happy about that. Now to just continue getting to know the team and trying to get ourselves ready for the race weekend."
More, from another release by WorldSBK:
Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) looks to have taken a step in his riding atop his KB998 Rimini in his performance on Day 2 of testing at Portimao's Autodromo Internacional do Algarve
Day 2 saw him take a step forward, trading his Day 1 P7 for a Day 2 P3. The conditions in the test looked to finally be dry, allowing the grid for the grid get some dry running time after a rainy pair of days in Portimao in late January. This was the case for the first half of the day, however just before lunch, the weather turned. Sporadic rainfall sent riders to the garage for most of the afternoon apart from the last half hour when the track was finally dry enough for riders to push.
A start to not only the 2025 MOTUL FIM Superbikes World Championship season, but to the latest chapter in Bimota's WorldSBK racing history took place last round, in Australia. Atop their new bike, Alex Lowes and his teammate Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) rang in the manufacturer’s return well, with Lowes earning a Pair of 8th place finishes in Races 1 and 2, as well as a P7 in the Tissot Superpole Race. Since then, Lowes was consistent on his Day 1 P7, and in Day 2, he looked to be even more comfortable, taking a step forward and landed in P3 late in the afternoon session.
On his feeling with the bike, Lowes said, "Today I felt good on the bike, honestly these two days have probably been the best I've felt so far on the Bimota, which is positive and normal as we're learning and improving it all the time. It's a little bit of a shame about the weather as we're still testing items rather than focusing on track-specific settings. I wanted to do a long run and we had quite a few things on the schedule but you can't change the weather, so I enjoyed it, the guys did a fantastic job and we're slowly improving."
The poor weather today and throughout much of the preseason's testing threw a wrench in the plans of many teams, however it is hard to imagine a team was more affected by the lack of time on track than Bimota who were unveiling their completely new KB998. Despite that, Lowes and Bassani have been competitive all through preseason and Australia. While the pair of star riders certainly hold a share of the credit for this, Lowes and his team are interested in developing their package as far as they can take it.
"Today on the agenda, a lot of the focus was on the front of the bike. Geometry settings we hadn't been able to explore, different stiffnesses on the front, some positive, some negative. I think we only managed 35-40 laps, [45 laps] so that was all we managed to get through. The main takeaway for the test was an improved feeling on the front of the bike, that was my target after Philip Island where I didn't feel like I could pass the other riders, so that was a positive. The negative is I still need to improve the rear grip, especially on the fresh tires, I feel like from lap 10 onwards we're really strong but we're missing that initial lap time. In general, it's been a positive test, I feel good going into the second round in Portimao, I hope to make a step forward on the results from Phillip Island. Nothing crazy, but we can improve on our results and work really hard, hopefully battling close to the top six. Who knows if we can achieve more than that but first we need to analyze the results from this test and put it all together."
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