Portimao WorldSBK Test
Day One – January 29, 2024

The opening day of the two-day Portimao WorldSBK Test was gatecrashed by the likes of MotoGP World Champion Pecco Bagnaia alongside the living legend that is Valentino Rossi.

The Ducati MotoGP riders were on lightly modified road bikes but put in plenty of laps. Most had timing transponders, however, the Marquez brothers did not. Valentino Rossi was on a Yamaha.

Topping the charts once again was Nicolo Bulega.  The WorldSBK rookie a tenth ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea.

Nicolo Bulega – P1

“Very good first day. I was a bit worried before starting this morning, this track is very difficult with this bike. It was difficult to be fast, so I’m really happy about the time today. This track is one of the most difficult this season and I needed to adapt a little bit because it’s really different from Supersport. My pace was good in the end, so I’m happy about today. We focused on braking because there is a lot of hard braking here, and we need to improve in that area. During the day, we were able to improve, and we know in which direction to work tomorrow. We’re already doing a great job, and I want to continue this way.“

Jonathan Rea seems very happy at Yamaha while the pace of Razgatlioglu will be a great shot in the arm for the BMW World Superbike project.

Remy Gardner was next best in fourth ahead of Andrea Locatelli, Sam Lowes, Michael van der Mark and Alvaro Bautista.

Although an improvement from his position in Jerez (P16), Bautista is grappling with both a lingering neck injury and the challenge of adapting to the ballast imposed on his bike to comply with the new combined weight rules.

Michael van der Mark experimented with different swing-arms on the Rokit BMW.

Lowes is clearly taking to the V4 R superbike and looks to have the pace to be fighting for podiums when the season gets underway next month at Phillip Island.

HRC seem to be making some progress with Xavi Vierge not as far off the pace as he had been last week at Jerez.

Alex Lowes rounded out the top ten as fastest Kawasaki just ahead of Bradley Ray.

Tuesday will be the final day of testing before teams get ready to ship the bikes to Australia. Where teams will undergo one final pre-season test at the Phillip Island Circuit (19-20 February), before the season’s first races get underway at the picturesque venue between 23-25 February.

Tickets for the 2024 season opener are on sale now, check out your options at www.worldsbk.com.au

Portimao WorldSBK Test Times
January 29, 2024

2024 WorldSBK Dates

Source: MCNews.com.au