Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) continued his strong MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship form with P3 on Friday at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve as he looks to repeat his podium success from the opening round. Portimao is a circuit that Montella has enjoyed in the past and will hope to use that to fight for another rostrum finish at the Pirelli Portuguese Round.

Montella finished P3 in the combined classification as he set a 1’40.351s in Free Practice 2. He did 14 laps in the afternoon session with no long stint; his longest run was six laps long. Five of these laps were in the 1’40s bracket, with his fastest time of the session coming on the second lap of this run. It was a similar story in FP1, when he finished in fifth place. His longest run was again six laps, and all the times in this run were in the 1’41s bar two; one in the 1’42s and a cancelled lap in the 1’45s.

Reviewing his Friday, Montella stated: “After Australia, we are continuing in this way to fight for the top positions. I’m happy for this. It’s true that, I think for tomorrow, we need to continue to work because I need something more on the bike; something different with the front feeling. I couldn’t push on the front like I wanted to. We need to analyse this data from today and try to make a step for tomorrow. In the end, we cannot put our head down and we need to continue to keep working.”

Montella secured his first WorldSBK rostrum at Phillip Island in Race 1 and will want to ensure he can fight in the top positions again. He seems to have started the Portuguese Round in the right way as he looks to replicate this success. He #5 explained how important it is for him to continue fighting for the top positions, ensuring his podium isn’t just because he’s a Phillip Island specialist.

Discussing this, the Italian said: “It’s really important for me. When something like the podium happens at one track, you can think that ‘Well, Phillip Island is a track that I like’. The bike worked really well there. When you change to a completely different track from Australia, without the test before, we had no data so to be there is really important for me and also the team. We can say we could stay in that position for a lot of races.”

Can Montella repeat his podium success at Portimao? Find out using the WorldSBK VideoPass!