Jonathan Rea scores eighth consecutive win at Portimao

2019 WorldSBK

Round 10 – Portimão

Jonathan Rea scored the holeshot and took the lead into turn one as a lunge from Chaz Davies saw him barge his own team-mate Alvaro Bautista out of the way, shuffling the Spaniard right down to 18th place after he tagged the back of Alex Lowes along the way.

As the order sorted itself out over the course of the opening lap it was Rea leading Sykes and Haslam while Chaz Davies made his way up to fourth ahead of Michael van der Mark. 

By lap three Davies and van der Mark had worked their way past Leon Haslam. Two laps later Davies squeezed ahead of Tom Sykes at Turn 1, with van der Mark then taking advantage at Turn 3 before Haslam took the 2013 WorldSBK champion at Turn 6. On the front straight, Razgatlioglu got ahead of Sykes at the end of the lap, capping off a bad lap for the Huddersfield rider. 

Further back, Bautista was caught up behind Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) in the battle for ninth, with the two veterans swapping paint between Turn 9 and 12. However, Bautista made his break at the end of the lap before making short work of Sandro Cortese.

Back in the fight for fourth, Tom Sykes then crashed at Turn 13, not the way he wanted to celebrate a contract extension for 2020. Sykes re-joined and was back in the points by halfway distance.

Jonathan Rea went on to build up a lead of over three-seconds and was well on his way for an eighth consecutive Portimao victory. 

With 11 laps to go and tyre life now becoming a factor, Razgatlioglu made his move at Turn 3 and got ahead of Leon Haslam.

In seventh place, Alvaro Bautista was beginning to close on Alex Lowes, who was having a quiet race in sixth position. Bautista was the fastest rider on track, in a case of ‘what could’ve been’.

Back in the battle for fourth Leon Haslam got back ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and began to edge clear with seven laps to go. But now, a new threat was very much in the fight: Alvaro Bautista was taking chunks out of the gap, lapping nearly a second a lap quicker that his combatants.

At Turn 5 with six to go, Bautista took advantage of a Lowes’ error when the British rider ran in too deep; Bautista was now sixth.

Further up, the battle for second had calmed, with Davies seemingly able to break away from van der Mark. Bautista cleared Razgatlioglu with three laps to go on the straight and tried to get ahead of Haslam at Turn 3, but the Brit held on and toughed it out through Turn 4, as the three battled hard. A lap later and Bautista used the top speed of the Ducati to take fourth from Haslam, where he would stay until the chequered flag.

Jonathan Rea took the win to extend his championship lead to 94-points. Chaz Davies was a safe second from 12th on the grid and van der Mark a settled third.

Bautista came home fourth ahead of Leon Haslam, whilst Toprak Razgatlioglu faded to finish in sixth, but all the way from 13th on the grid to finish as top Independent.

Alex Lowes was seventh, ahead of Sandro Cortese, Marco Melandri and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team), just edging out Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) to complete the top ten.

Jonathan Rea – P1

“The big thanks today goes to my team because surely this weekend we made the bike better especially in the hot condition. I worked really hard at the beginning of the race to try and find a gap, then when I got to five seconds I got really nervous so I just tried not to make any mistake and bring the bike home. Thanks to all the support that I got. I am looking forward to tomorrow. We can try to improve the bike a little bit, especially at the end of the race to make things more comfortable. We achieved our target today”.

Chaz Davies – P2

“Honestly if you would have told me that I would be on the podium after that qualifying performance, I’d laughed to it. It wasn’t a good qualifying at all and the start it wasn’t brilliant, but then I just went in deep into Turn 1 and then did the same into Turn 3 and made up like eight places and just went forward. That was the strategy, but sometimes you don’t know if it works out that way. Being aggressive it paid off today, and I put myself into that good group earlier on. Otherwise, it would have been a hard race starting from twelfth. I am pleased, and I think my bike was solid, even I struggled just a little bit with the front in the latter laps. But I only had to manage the gap on Michael, and Johnny was too far. Thanks to my team, they worked hard. I think that the most important thing is that we were able to bring here our performance from Laguna. These are two completely different race tracks, and I generally struggled here in the past, but now we got a good result today”.

Michael van der Mark – P3

“I am really happy to be back on the podium. This weekend we have been struggling a lot with the bike, and I have never been happy with it, but today in the race I felt a lot better. I had a nice battle with Chaz, and I thought I could stay with him till the end by I continued to struggle all the way through. Anyway, even if I wasn’t comfortable on the bike I was still able to deliver a podium to my team so I am really pleased with today race”.

Álvaro Bautista – P4

“I’m really happy with the performance we showed today, even though unfortunately we missed out on a chance to fight for the victory in the first corner due to what happened at the first turn with my team-mate and I was lucky not to touch Lowes and crash. I lost a lot of positions so I tried to recover and do my best. It was difficult to overtake other riders because I didn’t have much traction and I couldn’t make my lines so I needed more time to overtake. When I was alone our pace was even faster than the winner, so I’m happy with the performance but not the result. At least we have two races tomorrow to try and get better results than today.”

Leon Haslam – P5

“I made a few mistakes which lost me the tow with Davies and Van der Mark. I felt I had the pace of those guys if not for too many little mistakes. I am struggling a little bit with corner entry; not something we have had in the past but something we have had an issue with all weekend. I just felt I was on the edge too much and it caught me out a few times. When I backed off from that the pace was quite comfortable. But to push on from the mistakes I made I needed to get a bit more of a better feel from the front.”

WorldSBK Race One/Superpole Results

Supersport 600

In recent rounds, the momentum has been firmly with Caricasulo but Krummenacher still held the championship lead. Heading into the race tomorrow, it is Caricasulo who starts on pole.

Randy Krummenacher was the rider who slotted in at the top spot, ahead of the surprise package of Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing), the Spaniard making his debut at the Algarve International Circuit. Kyle Smith’s strong weekend looked set to continue in the early stages, as the British rider was up as high as third once everyone had settled down with the opening times. There was a crash for Raffaele De Rosa (MV AGUSTA Reparto Corse) at Turn 14 but the Italian made it back to the pits. At Turn 11 in the final 10 minutes, Isaac Viñales crashed but was unscathed in the incident.

As the session came to an end, Caricasulo hit pole position, ahead of Krummenacher and Viñales. However, there was still plenty of opportunity for change, as the Kawasaki charge was strong, being led by Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), with Ayrton Badovini (Team Pedercini), Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Kyle Smith all lining up behind the trio of Yamahas at the front. Jules Cluzel (GMT94 YAMAHA) needed a strong lap in the closing stages, languishing down in eighth.

On his final lap, Federico Caricasulo blasted in a very quick time, storming to the fastest lap of the weekend and putting himself 0.4s clear of the chasing bunch and securing back-to-back poles for the first time this season. Krummenacher was only able to achieve second position as he is recovering from nagging injuries picked up from Friday, whilst Lucas Mahias was back on the front row again in third.

Leading the charge from row two, despite a crash, Isaac Viñales was fourth and impressive on his return to action after eight weeks off in the summer. Raffaele De Rosa’s issues earlier on in the session saw him elevate up the order to the middle of row two in fifth, whilst Ayrton Badovini made it three Italians in the top six and completed row two. Kawasaki and MV AGUSTA are certainly bringing the charge to Yamaha at the front of the grid.

Row three features Japanese star Hikari Okubo, who is yet to start from outside the top nine in 2019. Joining him on the third row, it was a disaster for Jules Cluzel who starts just eighth after winning last time out at Donington Park. Britain’s Kyle Smith was ninth, as he looks to secure the Europe Supersport Cup crown this weekend. Completing the top ten is Jules Danilo (CIA Landlord Insurance), making it all four manufacturers represented inside the top ten. Wildcard Miquel Pons (H43 Team NOBBY TALASUR-BLUMAQ) was 11th.

Supersport 600 Superpole

Supersport 300

After a lengthy break, it was time for the riders to dial themselves back in across both the groups in their 20-minute sessions. The top 30 would make it through to the main race on Sunday, whilst those outside of it would have to finish inside the top six of the Last Chance Race. Not needing to worry about that, it was Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) who stormed to pole position.

Group A saw two of the championship rivals clear at the top, with Galang Hendra Pratama (Semakin Di Depan Biblion Motoxracing) topping the session ahead of Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki Provec WorldSSP300). The Indonesian riders lap time was an all-time lap record for the class at the circuit; Hendra Pratama had to give it his best shot, as he has a 12-place grid penalty to contend with for irresponsible riding at Donington Park. Manuel Bastianelli (Prodina IRCOS Kawasaki) was third ahead of Koen Meuffels (Kawasaki MOTOPORT), with four race winners in the top four after Group A Superpole.

Group B soon took to the circuit and the times were immediately right on those of Hendra Pratama. Victor Steeman (Freudenberg KTM Junior Team) was getting quicker and quicker early on, straight away going into second on the grid. Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) was also quick straight away, whilst Scott Deroue (Kawasaki MOTOPORT) was also in the mix for pole position.

With just under 12 minutes to go, championship leader Gonzalez hit top spot on combined times but there was plenty of time left to run. Victor Steeman, who had been lapping consistently fast and looks to have good pace, took pole position away from Gonzalez five minutes later, as he chases his second pole position of his 2019 WorldSSP300 campaign. It was a disaster further down the field for Beatriz Neila (BCD Yamaha MS Racing), as she suffered a flat rear tyre with less than five minutes to go.

Manuel Gonzalez’ bid to become WorldSSP300 champion grew stronger as in the closing two minutes, he 17-year-old took pole position back from Steeman and remained ahead overall. Steeman took second place and Hendra Pratama was third from Group A but will start in 15th due to his 12-place grid penalty. This means that championship challenger Ana Carrasco will inherit a front row grid start. Scott Deroue finished fifth overall but will start from fourth, whilst Andy Verdoïa (BCD Yamaha MS Racing) will start from fifth after completing the session sixth, whilst Bruno Ieraci (Kawasaki GP Project) will move onto the row two due to Hendra Pratama’s penalty.

Marc Garcia (DS Junior Team) heads up the third row on the grid, ahead of Manuel Bastianelli and Beatriz Neila, who achieves her best grid position with tenth but will start ninth. Completing the top ten on the grid, Aragon 2018 race winner Koen Meuffels. It was a disaster for Hugo De Cancellis (Team Trasimeno Yamaha), who suffered two crashed and will start down in 29th position on Sunday.

Oliver König (ACCR Czech Talent Team – Willi Race) breezed clear to take the WorldSSP300 Last Chance Race win, as the battle ignited behind him. The Czech rider eased away in the early stages of the race and soon found himself away at the front of the field, whilst behind him, the positions from third back to sixth had not been sorted out. But who would come out on top?

With König away and running at the very front of the field, it would be Dion Otten (MTM Racing) who took second place, although he had little company in the closing stages of the race. Behind, however, the battle really had come alive in the closing stages. Mateo Pedeneau (Team MHP Racing – Patrick Pons) would get the better of his teammate Enzo De La Vega to take the final position in the top three, whilst both made it through to the main race tomorrow.

Bahattin Sofuoglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing by TSM), who ran fourth for most of the race was fifth in the end after a tricky final lap, but he held off Adrien Quinet (TGP Racing), who completely missed FP1 on Friday. Just missing out on racing action tomorrow was Marco Carusi (Team Trasimeno Yamaha), with the Italian coming home seventh.

Joel Kelso is impressing in his wildcard appearance and is the top qualifying Australia. Kelso will start from 14th on the grid while countrymen Tom Bramich and Tom Edwards will start from 25th and 27th positions respectively.

Supersport 300 Combined Superpole