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The 2021 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season is coming into its final round of three back-to-back rounds. The Algarve International Circuit is ready and waiting, but who will take honours this weekend? With a 20-point Championship lead for Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) over arch-rival Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), Portimao is pivotal this weekend. The form guide is here, so who is hot and who is not coming into Portimao?

975 – A podium for Ducati at Portimao, the manufacturer with the most podiums at the track, will be their 975^th podium place in WorldSBK history.

339/299 – Two round numbers in sight for two Japanese manufacturers: at the moment Honda counts 339 races on the podium and Yamaha 299.

295/150 – A British win will be the 295^th win for the country in WorldSBK; a pole will be the 150^th.

219 – Alex Lowes is on 218 race starts, the 11^th all-time value, tied with Michel Fabrizio. With one more, he’ll reach four-time World Champion Carl Fogarty at the 10^th all-time spot.

150 – With three more race starts, Leandro Mercado (MIE Racing Honda Team) will reach Carlos Checa at the 32^nd all-time spot (150 races started).

110-210 – Second match-point for Jonathan Rea to reach 110 wins and 210 podiums. In Jerez, he wasn’t able to win but claimed one podium in Race 1, taking his tally to 209.

48/24 – Toprak Razgatlioglu has scored half of his 48 podium finishes this season. 24 podiums in a season are the best value for a Yamaha rider.

24x2 – The Championship fight is so intense that only for the second time in history, two riders climbed on the podium at least 24 times in a season: Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu both recorded this value in 2021. The other time was in 2019: Rea took 34 podiums (out of 38 races), the all-time record value, and Alvaro Bautista, as a rookie, scored 24.

20 – Jonathan Rea has the most podium finishes here: no less than 20 out of 26 races. His next competitors are Marco Melandri and Michael van der Mark at just six.

20 –20 wins out of 26 came from the front row at Portimao, highlighting its importance.

14 – Great Britain is the most successful country at Portimao, with 14 wins to Italy’s 5. Since 2014, the only non-British win here was Race 2, 2019 (Alvaro Bautista, Spain).

12/15 – Rea has won at Portimao 12 times, the second-best value for any rider on any track in WorldSBK history. With a triple, win he can equal his own record of 15 wins in Assen.

12 – Rea is the undisputed leader for wins here: 12 races, nearly a half of all the WorldSBK races run at Portimao (26). Since 2015, Race 2, he missed out on the top spot only in 2019 in Race 2 (Bautista). That makes 12 wins out of the last 13 races run at Portimao.

8/9 – The longest winning streak for a manufacturer here is eight by Kawasaki, all by Rea from Race 1 2015 to 2019’s Tissot Superpole Race. Rea adds to those a win for Honda in Race 2, 2014, making the longest streak for a rider here at nine races long. That is an all-time record streak in WorldSBK.

7 - Seven different manufacturers have recorded at least a podium at Portimao: (Ducati, Honda, Aprilia, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, BMW). Besides Suzuki, the rest are race winners

4x10 – Andrea Locatelli at Jerez was twice fourth, upping his 2021 tally of fourth places to 10. It’s the highest value in history, only recorded previously by Alex Lowes two years ago.

2 – Yamaha’s the only manufacturer to record pole in consecutive years with two riders at Portimao: 2009 with Ben Spies and in 2010 with Cal Crutchlow; it being two different nationalities too.

SHORTHAND NOTEBOOK

2020 race winners:

• Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki, Race 1, Tissot Superpole Race and Race 2)

Last three pole-sitters at Portimao:

• 2020: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) 1’40.676
• 2019: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) 1’40.372
• 2018: Eugene Laverty (Aprilia): 1’40.705

Manufacturer podium places (and wins) from all WorldSBK races at Portimao:

• Ducati: 22 (5)
• Kawasaki: 18 (13)
• Yamaha: 15 (2)
• Honda: 10 (1)
• Aprilia: 10 (4)
• Suzuki: 2
• BMW: 1 (1)

Key gaps from Portimao in 2020:
 

• Front row covered by: 0.398s
• 1 second in Superpole covered… the top 10: 0.931s
• Closest race gap between 1^st and 2^nd: 2.946s (Rea 1^st, Razgatlioglu 2^nd, Superpole Race)
• Closest race podium: 4.453s (Rea 1^st, Redding 2^nd, van der Mark 3^rd, Race 2)
• Closest race podium of all time: 0.658s (Biaggi 1^st, Haslam 2^nd, Crutchlow 3^rd, Race 2 2010)

Manufacturer top speeds at Portimao in 2020:

• Ducati: Chaz Davies – 319.6 km/h, FP3
• Yamaha: Toprak Razgatlioglu – 318.7 km/h, Warm-Up
• Kawasaki: Jonathan Rea – 311.3km/h, Race 1
• Honda: Alvaro Bautista – 310.4 km/h, Superpole Race
• BMW: Tom Sykes – 309.6 km/h, FP1 and Superpole

Watch all the 2021 season unfold chapter-by-chapter with the comprehensive WorldSBK VideoPass!