Race 1 for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship delivered further intense action on Saturday, with Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) continuing his impressive weekend at the Pirelli Portuguese Round, with the Italian making a magical return to the podium. After an incredible race, the Italian would storm to take a sensational result – finishing third at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. This podium claimed a further 16 points in the Championship and in the independent rider’s standings, which he leads by just 12 points from Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven).

Petrucci had a fantastic opening lap, storming into second position on the opening lap before beginning to battle with eventual Race 1 winner Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team). However, after further battling, Petrucci hit the front for the first time, leading a WorldSBK race with 16 laps remaining. The Italian battled incredibly hard, not giving anybody an inch as Razgatlioglu began his attack. Petrucci held off the #54 for multiple laps, responding instantly before with eight laps to go the Italian lost the lead.

It was a big moment for Petrucci, who recalled what he was thinking in the lead: “Finally, finally it was the first thing that I thought when I caught the front, finally I am leading the race, it was the first time since 2022 in MotoAmerica that I led a race. I am really happy as I knew it was almost impossible to create a gap from Toprak. I am really happy to be here because after the incident this track has been a struggle. In the second part of the race, I was struggling a bit with the front tyre, to close the corner so I lost some corner speed and it was really tough to keep the pace.”

It was a consistent pace throughout for Petrucci, who spent the majority of Race 1 lapping inside the 1’41 bracket – occasionally dipping into the 1’40s. However, once Razgatlioglu was into the lead, the #9 was under threat from Bautista, who began to catch the back of Petrucci with the Italian admitting post-race that he started to struggle with grip and in the braking zones. It was an intense end to Race 1 with the reigning World Champion soon finding his way into P2 with just three laps remaining.

Discussing the final laps in Race 1, Petrucci said: “We started to push again but I was a little bit in trouble with the traction, I couldn’t brake hard, I couldn’t accelerate and in fact Alvaro came. I think in the last few laps I tried to put some pressure on Alvaro but he was a little bit faster. A podium is also a great target for us, after a win in Supersport with Montella for our team then another podium, today we can be really satisfied.”

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Source: WorldSBK.com