Yesterday the circuit of Portimao hosted the first day of private Superbike testing in view of the Australian Grand Prix (23-25 February) at Phillip Island which will inaugurate the 2024 World Championship. The spectacular Portuguese track welcomed the riders who will take part in the top championship reserved for production derivatives, but some MotoGP riders also took advantage of the opportunity to train in preparation for the new season.
In fact, the F. Ducatisti rode on the ups and downs of the Algarverancesco Bagnaia, Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzecchi, Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonioas well as the new Honda representative Luca Marini and his brother Valentino Rossi. The nine-time world champion, as a Yamaha ambassador, returned to share one of the MotoGP tracks with his Academy riders two years after retiring at the end of 2021.
The 44-year-old from Tavullia has accumulated 49 laps aboard his R1, setting a personal best time of 1’44″7 and paying less than two seconds compared to the time set by the reigning world champion “Pecco” Bagnaia in 1’43″0 on the Panigale V4S. The other blue protagonists of the premier class were placed between 1’43″3 and 1’43″7 (including Celestino Vietti, top rider of Moto2), while the brothers Marc and Alex Marquez rode in Portimao together with the others but without transponders.
Obviously slower times and not comparable to the chronometric results recorded by the Superbike riders with the bikes that will take part in the World Championship. Nicolò Bulega confirmed the excellent signals from the official tests in Jerez, posting the best performance of the day in 1’39″9 just ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu’s BMW and Jonathan Rea’s Yamaha. World champion Alvaro Bautista was only eighth with almost 8 tenths of a gap compared to his new teammate.
Photo: Lapresse
2024-01-30 13:12:32
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