The Portimao circuit today staged the second day of action making up the second WorldSBK round.
Yesterday, Tito Rabat and Bahattin Sofuoglu took part in two free practice sessions in preparation for the Superpole and today’s race.
In the morning’s qualifying session, the Turkish rider set a time of 1’40”838, concluding seventeenth ahead of his team-mate, who put in a 1’41”213. As a result, they both started the afternoon’s 20-lap race from the sixth lap.
Both riders got away well when the lights went out, immediately making up some positions. Thanks to a consistently fast pace and supported by the performance of their YZF-R1 machines, Sofuoglu crossed the line thirteenth, while Rabat followed close behind in fifteenth place. Bahattin scored another 3 championship points, while Rabat banked his first point of the season.
Tomorrow the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team will be back on track for the Superpole Race and Race 2.
"A challenging race but one that brought results in the end, with both our riders inside the points zone. Beyond the actual race results, I’m very pleased with the work the team’s doing, as they are doing all they can to help our riders to do well. We need to carry on like this, without lowering our guard, to continue to improve and achieve our goals.”
“A positive day. We scored a first championship point and improved in the final laps, finding a path that we want to continue on in tomorrow’s races too. If we can take another step forward, we will be able to reach the top ten or twelve. It won’t be easy but we need to try. A big thanks to the team for all their great work.”
“I’m pleased with what we’ve done today. I was able to score three more points and achieve what is my best result in Superbike so far. We have a few problems with the front end that are slowing us down, but I’m sure that the team will be able to solve them. For tomorrow, I hope we can run another two solid races to round out this Portimao round in the best possible way.”
