Track temperatures at Portimao this afternoon climbed above 46°C which conspired to slow laptimes in the second WorldSBK free practice with only five riders improving on their morning efforts.
Aruba Ducati’s Chaz Davies cut his gap to fastest man Jonathan Rea to a little over seven-tenths but needs to find some pace in the second half of the lap in order to make some more progress. The Welshman ended the day in tenth overall.
Tom Sykes managed a 1’42.788 to finish in 12th place, an improvement of two-tenths while Jordi Torres moved to 15th with a 1’42.242. Sylvain Barrier also went quicker in 19th place while Alessandro Del Bianco was also an improver but then crashed.
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) ended up fastest of all, with a 1’41.931 that was 0.078 seconds faster than the next best on the day, Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) pushed his way to third today one place ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing).
Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) ended up fifth and Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team) sixth, 0.357 seconds down on his team-mate Rea.
Recent struggler Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) came good in seventh place, with Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) a strong challenger again on the lone Ten Kate bike.
Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha) and eventual FP2 improver Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) rounded out the top ten.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team Ducati) was 11th and FP1 faller Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was 12th.
