Eleventh in the final day sort-up,
when many qualifying tires were
used by many if not all riders, was
new WorldSBK rider Sam Lowes,
from Marc VDS Racing Ducati.
Axel Bassani was 12th for
Kawasaki, and 13th was the
first Honda rider, Xavi Vierge, on
the different-looking and much-
changed Honda CBR100RR-R
SP, but still with a lot of work in
progress, clearly.
Former Aruba.it Racing Ducati
rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Mo
-
toCorsa Ducati) placed 14th.
Current World Champion and
Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider Alvaro
Bautista was a lowly 15th on the
final day, still suffering from a sore
neck and back after his Jerez test
-
ing crash in the winter of 2023.
Next up for the WorldSBK
hordes is the preseason official
tests at Phillip Island between
February 19-20 (the Monday
and Tuesday before the opening
round) and then the first points-
scoring biggie of the season in
Australia, set for February 23-25.
The test was organized by
Ducati, so only their WorldSSP
riders could attend from that
class, but there were many other
'oddities' to be seen.
One significant retired MotoGP
rider and several current MotoGP
riders used Portimao as a kind of
track refresh session, before
they headed to Sepang for their
first rides on their real MotoGP
machines.
Hence Pecco Bagnaia, Enea
Bastianini, Marco Bezzecchi, Marc
Marquez and others were rid
-
ing on roadbike Ducati Panigale
V4 S machines, painted in their
GP team colors, while a certain
Valentino Rossi was out on a
Yamaha, cutting laps under his
VR Academy umbrella. Franco
Morbidelli had a hard crash and
was taken away for an overnight
stay in Faro hospital, and his par
-
ticipation in the upcoming Sepang
test in Malaysia is now in ques-
tion as the Prima Pramac Ducati
team said, "[The team] decided to
postpone the evaluation for a few
additional days to allow for a more
comprehensive understanding of
his fitness and to determine his
eligibility for participation in the
upcoming scheduled test days."
Gordon Ritchie
Portimao WorldSBK Test Results
1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (BMW) 1:39.189s
2. Nicolo Bulega (Ducati) +0.086s
3. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) +0.332s
4. Remy Gardner (Yamaha) +0.377s
5. Michael van der Mark (BMW) +0.428s
VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P33
This is the guy everyone's
talking about. Nicolo Bulega
has been on fire since joining
the Superbike ranks and will
be a contender from the off.
Garrett Gerloff had a
good test, ending it on
the edge of the top 10.
