Razgatlıoğlu Flies to Fastest Lap Time in Portimão Friday Free Practice
Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK rider and defending WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlıoğlu topped Friday’s Free Practice with a commanding lap time of 1’40.720, as the ninth round of the 2022 FIM Superbike World Championship kicked off at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal today.
It was a positive result for the Turkish ace, who alongside his #1 Yamaha R1 WorldSBK crew, tested the Pirelli tire options available at this circuit in his search of a race-winning set-up for the weekend. But what really caught everyone’s attention was Razgatlıoğlu’s 21 metre-long “flight” over the crest of Turn 9 on his “in-lap” at the end of FP1!
Teammate Andrea Locatelli was eighth quickest in the combined standings, having set a 1’41.760 lap time in this morning’s Free Practice 1 session before continuing to work on race pace and set-up to manage tyre life during in the hotter temperatures during the afternoon.
With warm, clear weather set to continue throughout the weekend, today’s set-up work could prove crucial in Race 1 at 14:00 (WEST, UTC+1) tomorrow, but not before one final 30-minute Free Practice 3 at 9:00 and the all-important 15-minute Superpole qualifying to determine grid position at 11:10.
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu: P1 – 1’40.720
“For me it was a very good Friday because we started really strong. I am happy today, we tried some different set-up combinations and now we are ready to race. After some changes at the start of FP2, I see very good lap time 1’40.7 with SC0 tyre – also not a new tyre, it was used one. I am really happy for this and after we try race simulation with different tyre and finally we know which tyre is better for the race. I love this track and this year, I try my best for three races, three wins. We will see, it’s not easy I know because everyone is very fast but I am coming here for the win. For the jump, I didn’t feel very long flight but we look at the data and I jumped 21 metres! Looks not long, but I think it was very fast! I learned how to jump the R1 when we went to Cadwell Park, for me this is fun after the hard work in the session.”
Andrea Locatelli: P8 – 1’41.760
“I’m happy because the feeling was ok immediately in FP1 and also in FP2, we improved the feeling of the bike a lot. We tried to focus just on riding many laps and to do a long run to understand the bike for the race tomorrow, but the confidence is good and this is important. Tomorrow morning we will try to push hard and do a fast lap to prepare for Superpole. But we have a good base set-up for the afternoon, in the end the position is not so good but I am really happy about the work we did today. I feel good on the bike and we are ready to race.”
