Blue skies and warm temperatures greeted the WorldSBK paddock at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for Round 2 of the Superbike World Championship.
A technical issue sidelined Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) from Free Practice 1. The reigning World Champion was back on track in the afternoon and back on top to set the fastest time, 1’39.995. Razgatlioglu’s second stint of the afternoon was very impressive and consistent with four laps faster than his closest rival.
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was Razgatlioglu’s closest challenger. The Italian led the times in the morning session and was second fastest in the afternoon having completed 40 laps during the course of today’s action.
A rear brake issue delayed Andrea Iannone’s start to the day in FP1 but he ended the opening day of action third fastest. The Team Pata Go Eleven rider ended the day six tenths of a second behind Razgatlioglu and narrowly ahead of Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) made it two BMW M1000RR’s inside the top three on the day by setting a time just over half a second slower than his teammate Razgatlioglu.
P1 – Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team)
“FP1 was surprising for me. I wasn’t riding the bike, I was just watching from the box. In FP2, we immediately went on track because I needed a race simulation. We had two different rear tyres to test so I needed to understand which one was better for the race. On the first run, I did a 10-lap race simulation, this was half of the race distance. For my second run I switched to the other rear tyre to compare them. It wasn’t bad and we set a good lap time with a strong pace. I still need to improve in some corners. The hot conditions make it difficult for everyone because the bike balance changes and you feel less grip. On the engine braking side we need to make some adjustments. I’m not 100% happy in some corners so I hope that tomorrow we can improve. The main areas to improve are engine braking and bike balance.”
P2 – Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“We’ve made a very big step since the test. During the test I didn’t have a good feeling. In FP1 we improved and in FP2 we made another step forward. We’re getting closer, but Toprak is still very fast. I’m happy because we’ve reduced the gap. If we can make another step, we can get even closer. That’s our target and we’re working hard. We’ll see tomorrow because I want to take another step forward, but it’s not easy to predict the race. We’ll see how things go throughout the rest of the weekend.”
P3 – Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team)
“After the test we knew we would be strong here. A race weekend is always different and this morning the track felt quite different compared to the test. Things didn’t feel as good as I wanted so I still think there’s a lot to improve on the bike in terms of feeling. To end the day in P3 is quite good. The circuit helps us a lot but the bike package has improved as well. Right now, it’s mainly the combination of improving the package and coming to a track that we both really like.”
Combined Results after FP2
1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 1’39.995s
2. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.299s
3. Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +0.511s
4. Andrea Iannone (Team Pata Go Eleven) +0.600s
5. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.711s
6. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) +0.762s
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©Words/Images are from official press release posted courtesy of WorldSBK.com
