· Toprak Razgatlioğlu (BMW) dominated the Portuguese round of WorldSBK. After winning Race1 yesterday, today the Turk also won the Superpole Race and Race2, setting a new race lap record in the Superpole Race with a time of 1:39.441, which improves by almost four tenths of a second on the best lap time he set in 2023. In the two races today, both the winner and the main contender Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) relied on tyres in medium SC1 compound at the front and soft development tyre in E0125 specification at the rear.
· The new development rear in E0125 specification was preferred by almost all riders in both the Superpole Race and Race2 grids, with one exception: Garret Gerloff (Kawasaki) started the short race with the supersoft SCX. For the front, the most popular choice was the medium SC1, the only exceptions being Alvaro Bautista (Ducati), who preferred the hard SC2 in both races today, and Scott Redding (Ducati) and Remy Gardner (Yamaha), who preferred it for Race 2.
· WorldSBK’s Race2 was interrupted about halfway through due to track conditions. When the race resumed, only three riders changed compounds: Remy Gardner (Yamaha) and Sam Lowes (Ducati) replaced the front, switching from SC2 to SC1 and SC1 to SC2 respectively, while Zaqhwan Zaidi (Honda) changed the soft rear development E0125 specification for the standard SC0.
· First win in WorldSSP Race2 for Bo Bendsneyder (MV Agusta), with the combination of medium SC1 at the front and soft SC0 at the rear, a choice also made by all the other riders. In the morning warm-up, Can Oncu (Yamaha) set a new all-time lap record of 1:42.643 and in Race2 he also set a new race lap record of 1:42.909, improving the previous one by a good three tenths.
New development rear star at Portimão
“We are very satisfied with the results obtained in Portimão by the new development soft in E0125 specification, because it was unanimously appreciated and widely used throughout the weekend. It has shown excellent performance, so much so that it was even chosen for qualifying by nearly all the riders over the softer SCX, as well as contributing to the improvement of all lap records. It was also very consistent, both in the short race and in the two long races: in all three it allowed the contenders for the victory to battle until the last corner. The feedback we have received from all the riders and teams has been very positive, so it will be interesting to continue with this specification and perform further testing on different circuits and in other conditions. Although the development soft practically monopolized the choices of this round, we also received positive feedback on the new standard soft, the SC0, used mainly in the early stages of the weekend. That will also be an interesting option for the next rounds.”