Having concluded round 2 of the 2020 Superbike World Championship in Spain just three days ago, Team HRC is already in Portugal, where round 3 will play out this coming weekend at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.

The racing at the Spanish track of Jerez de la Frontera proved challenging with extremely hot temperatures characterising the entire weekend. Less demanding conditions are expected in Portimão, with average temperatures that fall between 28 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius.

The Portuguese circuit is located in the Algarve, almost 300 km south of Lisbon. Completed in 2008, the circuit was inaugurated later that same year by the World Superbikes. The track is 4592 m in length and features 15 turns, 9 of which right-handers, 6 left-handers. The complex also incorporates karting and off-road tracks, a hotel and a technological park.

Last year’s Portuguese round saw Alvaro Bautista score the Race 2 win, while Leon Haslam closed with two solid top five finishes.

The weekend’s first free practice session will get underway on Friday at 10.30am.

2019 SBK RESULTS:

Race 1 – 1. Rea (Kawasaki); 2. Davies (Ducati); 3. Van der Mark (Yamaha).
Race 2 – 1. Bautista (Ducati), 2. Rea (Kawasaki), 3. Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki).

SBK RECORDS:

Best lap – Rea (Kawasaki) 1’41.272 (2019).
Superpole – Rea (Kawasaki); 1’40.372 (2019).


Weekend schedule (Local Time: CET -1):

Friday

10.30 – 11.20 – SBK Free Practice 1

15.00 – 15.50 – SBK Free Practice 2

Saturday

9.00 – 9.20 – SBK Free Practice 3

11.00 – 11.25 – Superpole

14.00 – SBK Race 1

Sunday

9.00 – 9.15 – SBK Warm-up

11.00 – Superpole race

14.00 – SBK Race 2


Alvaro Bautista 19

“In Jerez we collected a great deal of information to work with in Portimão. It will be very important to be able to combine this data with what we got from winter testing in order to try and be more competitive than we were in Jerez. We have some ideas and we’ll see if they work once we get there. Portimão is a challenging track as it’s bumpy and has a lot of undulation. It might not be easy, but we really need to take a step forward with respect to Jerez.”

Leon Haslam 91

“I think Portimão can be a good track for us as the Honda is very fast and the circuit’s main straight is one of the best places to pass. It also requires a lot of hard braking and one of the things we’ve been working on is our straight-line braking, so I can say I’m looking forward to it. It’s a real rollercoaster of a track, where we see some big wheelies, so there are various things to manage but I hope we can use our third event to better understand where we need to continue working.”