On a windy and hot afternoon, 22 riders lined up for 20 laps of Portimao. Eight of them would crash but eighteen would finish.
Jonathan Rea led Toprak Razgatlioglu, Loris Baz and Scott Redding into the first turn, with Redding taking third place from Baz. Alex Lowes, Michael van der Mark and Eugene Laverty lined up behind Baz, but Laverty crashed out at turn five, picking his bike up to rejoin at the back of the pack. Loris Baz then slid out at the high-speed last turn, ending what was up to this point an excellent weekend.
After Redding took second place into turn one, the front three broke away from Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark and Jonathan Rea set the fastest lap. A lap later, Rea improved the fastest lap with a 1'42.941 and started to clear off into the distance.
At the start of lap five, Rea had over a second of a lead, with Redding, Razgatlioglu, Lowes and van der Mark grouping together in a fight for second. Seven laps in, Toprak Razgatlioglu fell at turn five, losing third place and thirteen seconds, as he recovered in fourteenth place. A lap later, Alex Lowes followed suit, remounting but dropping his limping bike off at his garage instead of continuing.
Michael van der Mark closed on Scott Redding's second place, but couldn't keep up the pace and dropped back a few tenths. In fourth place, Chaz Davies held off Leon Haslam and Michael Ruben Rinaldi with Alvaro Bautista across the gap in seventh place. On lap twelve, Leon Haslam fell victim to turn five and had to pick up his stranded Honda to return to the race.
Scott Redding's tyre started to go off, in a now-familiar way, and Michael van der Mark made hay while the runner shone, closing at a rate of four tenths of a second a lap until lap fourteen. Scott Redding took turn five wide and van der Mark snuck underneath him. Redding closed his line but found a Yamaha exactly where he hoped to put his Ducati. He conceded second place to van der Mark but kept the pressure on. Van der Mark found a false neutral later in the lap and Redding capitalised on it to take second place back, now over four seconds behind Jonathan Rea. Van der Mark's tyres now caught up with Redding's and they matched lap times.
On lap sixteen, Garrett Gerloff went wide, and as he closed his turn, he met Xavi Fores on the apex and the pair clashed. Fores crashed out but Gerloff was able to resume in eleventh place. Toprak Razgatlioglu was in ninth place and closing on Federico Caricasulo at a terrifying rate of knots, taking eighth place a lap before the end.
On the last couple of laps, Redding held second place, matching every effort van der Mark made, with the pair never further apart than four tenths of a second.
Jonathan Rea won by over five seconds, but there was less than a tenths of a second at the flag between Scott Redding in second and Michael van der Mark in third place. Chaz Davies finished just under four seconds later with Alvaro Bautista almost two seconds behind him. Michael Ruben Rinaldi capitalised on Loris Baz's absence to finish top independent riders in sixth place.
Jonathan Rea now leads the championship, but only by four points as Scott Redding's hard fought second place keeps him within four points of the championship leader. Michael van der Mark's third place keeps him in fifth place behind Alex Lowes while Toprak's recovery in eighth place on track keeps him in third place in the championship, losing twelve points to Redding.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Gap |
1 | 1 | J. REA | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | |
2 | 45 | S. REDDING | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 4.360 |
3 | 60 | M. VAN DER MARK | Yamaha YZF R1 | 4.453 |
4 | 7 | C. DAVIES | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 3.910 |
5 | 19 | A. BAUTISTA | Honda CBR1000RR-R | 10.336 |
6 | 21 | M. RINALDI | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 12.566 |
7 | 66 | T. SYKES | BMW S1000 RR | 14.565 |
8 | 54 | T. RAZGATLIOGLU | Yamaha YZF R1 | 26.231 |
9 | 64 | F. CARICASULO | Yamaha YZF R1 | 28.103 |
10 | 36 | L. MERCADO | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 32.926 |
11 | 31 | G. GERLOFF | Yamaha YZF R1 | 33.229 |
12 | 50 | E. LAVERTY | BMW S1000 RR | 46.555 |
13 | 91 | L. HASLAM | Honda CBR1000RR-R | 46.573 |
14 | 33 | M. MELANDRI | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 49.902 |
15 | 20 | S. BARRIER | Ducati Panigale V4 R | 52.293 |
16 | 23 | C. PONSSON | Aprilia RSV4 1000 | 1'05.643 |
17 | 63 | L. GABELLINI | Honda CBR1000RR-R | 1'06.784 |
18 | 13 | T. TAKAHASHI | Honda CBR1000RR-R | 1'14.503 |
RET | 12 | X. FORES | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 5 Laps |
RET | 22 | A. LOWES | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 12 Laps |
RET | 77 | M. SCHEIB | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 19 Laps |
RET | 76 | L. BAZ | Yamaha YZF R1 |
Comments
Another fine...
... WSBK weekend. Full credit to Redding for building up to 2nd best from Friday onward. Also loved watching the cross-crossing lines of VDM and Redding - massively different bikes/styles doing the same lap time was a joy to watch.
Congratulations Jonathan Rea
Congratulations Jonathan Rea three awesome rides to 3 wins & the championship lead.
I predicted Redding might still be leading the 'chip after Portimao. I was wrong. 4 points behind isn't too much. SR45 did a good job of damage limitation in Portugal. Scott didn't seem comfortable on the track compared to P.I. & Jerez.
Next stop is Aragon, where Redding topped the test in November last year, SR45 should be competetive.
https://www.visordown.com/news/racing/wsb/scott-redding-tops-worldsbk-a…
Superbikes get almost three weeks off, so all should be ready to rock & roll on Friday 28th August. I can hardly wait.
Back to back MotoGp rounds at Austria should keep me going until then.
In reply to Congratulations Jonathan Rea by Apical
Toprak
Razgatlioglu's crash had an effect on the title chase, but he'll be back inthe fight soon.
Congratulations Jonathan Rea
Congratulations Jonathan Rea three awesome rides to 3 wins & the championship lead.
I predicted Redding might still be leading the 'chip after Portimao. I was wrong. 4 points behind isn't too much. SR45 did a good job of damage limitation in Portugal. Scott didn't seem comfortable on the track compared to P.I. & Jerez.
Next stop is Aragon, where Redding topped the test in November last year, SR45 should be competetive.
https://www.visordown.com/news/racing/wsb/scott-redding-tops-worldsbk-a…
Superbikes get almost three weeks off, so all should be ready to rock & roll on Friday 28th August. I can hardly wait.
Back to back MotoGp rounds at Austria should keep me going until then.
Busy weekend!
Between Brno and Portimao this has been a busy weekend for racers and for us race fans reading about all the action. Thanks David, Jared and Zara for great reporting and analysis!
JR's Arse
Jared, can you do all the viewers a favour by taking some photos of JR's arse & giving them to the TV cameraperson and/or editor who is more interested in constantly viewing the said appendage rather than the tight racing happening further down the field. Hopefully the photos will satisfy their cravings.
That's a crackup!