Toprak shows why he is #1 on first day of Portimao WorldSBK Test

WorldSBK 2025

Portimao Test – Day One

The second private test of the season is underway at Portimao, following last week’s session in Jerez. This two-day event serves as the final opportunity for teams to fine-tune their setups ahead of the season opener in Australia late next month. Wet conditions and the lack of a dry racing line prompted many teams to delay testing until midday when the weather improved.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) is back on track, testing BMW’s new bike after missing the Jerez test due to a training injury. The Turkish rider injured his right index finger three weeks ago but is now eager to make up for lost time.

Toprak Razgatlioglu

“It’s not bad, getting better every day but a little slowly. After the big injury, I had an operation and only 20 or 21 days ago, but it’s still new. I need to ride the bike because I need to try the new bike and we need to improve. In general, I’m very happy to come back to the circuit again. I’m still not 100% but I hope I’m feeling good on the bike and riding like real Toprak. The most important thing is how I’m feeling on the brakes because I’m always hard braking. We’ll see how it’s feeling with the broken finger. The team’s very happy when I come back, and I hope we start strongly. The doctors say after three months, you’ll be feeling like normal, but my biggest target at Phillip Island is to move my feeling almost 90%, because this is very important. Now, the feeling doesn’t move like the old style and if I’m like it’s moving a lot, this is perfect for me.

“Before Phillip Island, this is the last test. I need to ride the bike to understand the balance as it’s a new bike. Mickey’s also riding the new bike, but I need to ride, the team are also waiting for my comments. I hope I’m not feeling any pain on the bike. This is good as we’ll start the test on the bike, and this is important for me to find some setup maybe or improve for Phillip Island. Everyone is here which is good, but I don’t need the risk; I just need to understand the bike because my finger still isn’t 100%. I don’t need to crash; this is the important thing! I have two different special gloves. In the morning I’ll start to try, and I hope they help. One glove is for two fingers together for braking, one is like normal just one finger is big.

“I didn’t expect the finger to be like this, because I immediately started very fast. I felt a little bit of pain but not a lot. I used hard braking and everything was good; not like before, but it’s getting better. I was focused on my bike because we tried new parts and setup. It wasn’t a bad day for me. We tried many things. It was better than expected because, on the last run, I used the race tyre and not the SCQ tyre. This is the race tyre lap time and I think the other riders used the SCQ tyre. Not just one lap, but after ten laps, we’re very strong.”

Team-mate Michael van der Mark continued his work with the new BMW M1000RR, finishing P10.

Both Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) and Axel Bassani are experiencing the Portuguese circuit aboard the KB998 for the first time. Bassani impressed by claiming the second-fastest time on Tuesday.

Axel Bassani

“It’s been a strange day because we started in wet conditions. We did some laps to try to see how the bike was in this circuit. We waited and it started to dry, but the track was quite difficult out from Turn 4 and Turn 10; there was a lot of water. We tried something. The feeling with this bike on this track was good. It was the first time for us here. I’m feeling quite good. We improved a little bit with the rear. With Showa, we worked hard. I think we’re going in the correct way and we need to continue with this. We ran all day with the hard compound like everyone, I think. It’s hard to understand which tyres the rest of the riders are using. We continued with the race tyre, and, in the end, we put on only one soft tyre to check where we are with it. We did quite a good lap. I think BMW and Ducati with Toprak and Bulega have some margin, but we are there. We have to be happy; this is the most important thing. The team did a good job.”

Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati) was the fastest Ducati rider on Tuesday, securing the third-fastest time overall. Teammate Alvaro Bautista tested a new Ducati exhaust and recorded a best lap of 1’42.141s, despite a minor slide at Turn 7 during the afternoon session. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) and Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) also performed well, finishing within the top 10.

Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was the lead Yamaha rider, finishing fourth and becoming the last rider to clock a lap within the 1’40s. Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) followed closely in fifth, as Yamaha continues to refine its package for Phillip Island.

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Remy Gardner

“It’s been a good day. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the whole day. It was raining in the morning, and it took a while to dry out. It didn’t dry out completely in the end, we had some rivers across the track. I didn’t push 100% today just to avoid some crashes on the wet patches. Even so, we could work in the dry corners and work with some new test items we had that seemed to give me a good feeling. We did some back-to-back testing, and, for me, we confirmed the feeling from Jerez. Maybe they made even more of a difference here, so it’s been a good day. If it rains tomorrow, we’ll do a few laps. Not too many but we’ll do some just to confirm that we feelings we had in the last two years and see if the new items are helping us in the rain which we hope and expect.”

Continuing his strong work from Jerez, Xavi Vierge (Honda HRC) concluded Day 1 in seventh place. His team-mate, Iker Lecuona, made his 2025 debut at Portimao after recovering from an injury, marking an important step in his pre-season preparation.

Ryan Vickers (Motocorsa Racing) was the fastest rookie, finishing in P15, with Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) and Bahattin Sofuoglu (Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) not far behind in P17 and P18, respectively.

In WorldSSP, Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha) set the pace, followed by Philipp Oettl (Feel Racing WorldSSP Team), Marcel Schroetter (WRP Racing), and Michael Rinaldi (GMT94 Yamaha), as the trio continued adapting to their new respective teams.

Testing at Portimao continues tomorrow.

The opening round of the 2025 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship gets underway at Phillip Island on February 21. Organisers have confirmed that the season opener will feature mandatory pit stops due to tyre wear issues on the notoriously abrasive Phillip Island track surface.

Portimao WorldSBK Test Times
Day One – January 28

Compiled with the assistance of Dorna

2025 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship Calendar