News

"Before analysing the Superbike races, Pirelli would like to congratulate Kenan Sofuoglu (on his return to the category) and team Kawasaki Lorenzini on their victory in the World Supersport Championship which rewards the rider's excellent performance and the team's consistent work throughout the season.

"But the Portimão round, the penultimate of the World Championship, was first and foremost an extremely important weekend in the Superbike class main feature which, despite the uncertain weather conditions, provided fans with two very heated and exciting races. In particular race 1 was ridden on rain tyres by all the riders for both the first start, when the track was actually still quite wet, and for the restart after the race was red flagged to clean up oil left on the track by Brignola's unfortunate crash. For the latter case, in spite of the track being almost completely dry and therefore not in ideal performance conditions for the wet solution, the tyres performed superbly and surpassed all expectations, allowing the riders not only to finish the race without problems but even to improve lap times as the race went on. Clear evidence of this is the best lap, realised by Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) during the last lap, at a time when the track had already quite completely dried off. Race 2, on the other hand, was run on slicks. More specifically, almost all the riders opted for the oversized profile SC0 R874 solution which proved to be a valid alternative to the SC0 solution which was the standard selection here, as well as at Brno, Misano and Phillip Island.

"With a 30.5 point advantage over the closest contender (Tom Sykes) and 38.5 over Marco Melandri, Max Biaggi has staked a strong claim on the title, but on several occasions Superbike has demonstrated just how unpredictable the races can be, so we will have to wait and see what happens during the final round which will be held at Magny-Cours in two weeks."

Pirelli BEST LAP Awards:

SBK Race 1 - Carlos Checa (Althea Racing) 1'56.477 (Lap 16)
SBK Race 2 - Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) 1'44.578 (Lap 5)
Total BEST LAP (SBK): Checa C. (Althea Racing) 8, Biaggi M. (Aprilia Racing Team) 5, Melandri M. (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 4, Sykes T. (Kawasaki Racing Team) 3, Guintoli S. (Team Effenbert Liberty Racing) 1, Baz L. (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1, Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorad Italia Goldbet) 1, Leon Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 1, Laverty E. (Aprilia Racing Team) 1

WSS - Jules Cluzel (PTR Honda) 1'47.416 (Lap 6)
Total BEST LAP (WSS): Lowes S. (Bogdanka PTR Honda) 3, Cluzel J. (PTR Honda) 3, Foret F. (Kawasaki Intermoto Step) 2, Parkes B. (Ten Kate Racing Products) 2, Lanzi L. (Prorace) 1, Morais S. (Kawasaki Lorenzini) 1

STK1000 - Jeremy Guarnoni (MRS) 1'47.031 (Lap 6)
STK600 - Michael VD Mark (EAB Ten Kate Junior Team) 1'49.028 (Lap 7)