COMPETITON AT PORTIMAO: “I think the riders are a big difference because this track is like a rollercoaster… In this Championship, it won’t be a one-bike domination”
Reflecting on Ducati’s success in Australia and what to expect in Portugal, Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) said: “Australia is a special track, especially for Ducati, normally Ducati is very fast there, and we saw that all the Ducati riders can be fast there, but I don’t think that will be normal for all the tracks. In the test we did a few days ago, both BMWs were fast, the Bimotas were fast, it is more of a normal situation. What we saw in Australia was outside the norm because the machinery and the riders we both working very well there. I think this round we will see more of the reality of the Championship.”
Giving his views on what to expect at Portimao, Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) said: “Everyone knows last year’s BMW was very strong because we won many races, but the Ducati is a very strong bike. Ducati, every race weekend, are improving. Here, I think the riders are a big difference because this track is like a rollercoaster; it’s not only the bike that’s helping a lot, riders have to push hard, and for 20 laps, this is difficult because this track is up and down like a rollercoaster. It’s almost my favourite track, I’m always strong here but racing is different from testing.”
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) added: “I think Toprak will be very, very good because I think it’s his favourite track. Last year, he was very strong here. During the test, he was the rider to beat. We have to watch out him, but I want to say that, in the test, I was not able to push at 100%. Here, I think we can start with a bit of data from the test and improve a lot.”
Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) added: “We did some more testing here during March. I’m confident because we made a lot of modifications with the bike, and everything works. The wind here is always difficult to manage but I can’t wait to go on track. The first day, we found the track in a difficult condition; not a lot of traction and quite windy. We had to modify the setup of the bike especially with the electronics and go really low with the power, but I can ride the bike in an easier way. I don’t think it will be a Ducati cup like at Phillip Island, I think all the other manufacturers will come and be tough.”
Discussing the fight that he’s expecting at Portimao, Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO Racing) commented: “Phillip Island was quite special. The other manufacturers are quite competitive. Ducati do a great job. I think, in this Championship, it won’t be a one-bike domination. They’re working to try and level that out and you saw the lap times from the test, Toprak was also quite fast again. He was back. I think it’ll be good racing here. It’s a circuit that other bikes also go well, I remember in the past, Kawasaki with Jonathan was dominating, Toprak with Yamaha; it’s one of those circuits that’s quite technical.”
COOLER THAN USUAL CONDITIONS: “Everybody just goes a bit faster… it’ll change for the tyres a bit”
Redding discussed the cooler conditions, saying: “The weather won’t be too bad, but we normally race in the summer which is hard work; this is a physical track anyway, then put us in 30-35 degrees, it makes it very tough over three races. It’ll change for the tyres a bit. Hopefully, consistent track temperatures across the weekend helps us more. We’ll just have to see what we can do.”
Giving his thoughts on how cooler conditions will impact the weekend, Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) said: “Everybody just goes a bit faster! The thing with the different track conditions is that it’s the same for everybody, if it changes the speed of the track or the grip we’ve got, everybody’s got the same conditions. It’s a track I really enjoy whatever the temperatures are; it’s a track that’s good fun to ride, there’s decent racing. I think this weekend will be no different.”
LEARNINGS FROM THE TEST: “We did many 10-lap runs to understand the bike; the rhythm and pace was very good”
In his first comments about the recent test, Razgatlioglu stated: “In general, we improved just the setup. We know this track and we are just focused on the setup, especially race setup and not only one lap. We did many 10-lap runs to understand the bike, the rhythm and the pace was very good. The whole setup is changing. I’m just waiting for the race weekend, maybe we need a different setup, but it looks like we’re ready.”
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) was positive heading into the round, saying: “We did a couple of days of testing here at Portimao a couple of weeks ago. The weather was not so good, so we didn’t ride a lot, but, in the end, we found a good rhythm on the bike, and we tried something on the bike and the feeling was quite good. I hope, during the weekend, the weather is clearer, and we can ride well because maybe we can improve our feeling step by step and session by session.”
Sounding positive after a good test, Lowes said: “From all the riding in the winter and Phillip Island, we made some steps forward in the direction that I feel that I need to go on the bike. One of the main areas was balancing the bike, where we put the bike. We had the possibility to adjust the bike more at that test. We started with a base setting on the bike and tried not to go too far away from that in the winter, we tried some bigger parts like swingarms, electronics and lots of things, you don’t want to change the bike too much otherwise you’ll get lost. Once we realised that we understood the bike, the target of the test was to try to change the balance and give me a bit more confidence with the front especially under braking; it was an area that I felt I struggled with in Australia and couldn’t pass or put the bike where I wanted to.”
