Pirelli heads to Portugal for the Gaerne Estoril Round: confirmed the tyre solutions available to the riders

From Friday 27^th to Sunday 30^th May 2021, the Estoril Circuit in Portugal will host the second seasonal appointment of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. This is the first of the two rounds that are part of the WorldSBK 2021 calendar, which for the occasion is named Gaerne Estoril Round.

To this day, the Estoril Circuit hosted the production-derived Championship on three occasions: the first time in 1988, the year of the series debut, then five years later in 1993, and finally in 2020 after twenty-seven long years of absence. Even in 2021, the WorldSBK Circus makes a stop to this legendary Portuguese circuit, which is a rather technical track and consequently very demanding from a tyre point of view. This is due to several factors, such as the disproportion between right-hand and left-hand corners, which are respectively four and nine. Furthermore the right-hand corners, which all tend to be very fast, and the left-hand ones, which are to be tackled at lower speeds, are interrupted by a 1km straight, meaning that all aspects of the tyres and the motorcycles are put under stress.

The solutions for WorldSBK and WorldSSP class:

In the WorldSBK class, all riders will have available three front and four rear slick solutions. For the front tyre, Pirelli allows the choice between the standard SC1 soft compound and two development solutions: the development solution Y1231 in soft compound, already used in several races in 2020, and the new development solution Z0628 in soft compound, presented and used successfully last weekend in Aragon. This is an evolution of the standard SC1. This features a new structure developed to improve front-end feeling by increasing support in mid and corner entry.

The four rear tyre options include the super soft standard SCX compound, used throughout the 2020 season in preparation for the qualifying lap and in full races, the soft standard SC0 compound and the medium standard SC1 compound. The last rear option is the Superpole Y0449 tyre, presented in Laguna Seca in 2019 and used last weekend in Spain, which will allow the riders to make a quick lap during the Superpole session in search of the absolute best time to position themselves on the starting grid.

Pirelli takes also takes to Estoril a development rain solution X1251, used by the majority of the grid in Magny-Cours in 2020, that uses a new compound to offer more grip in wet conditions even at low temperatures.

In the WorldSSP category there will be four dry solutions available to the riders, two for the front and as many for the rear, all exclusively standard solutions. For the front Pirelli will allow a choice between a standard SC1 soft compound and a standard SC2 medium compound. For the rear, the riders will have at their disposal a standard SC0 soft compound and a standard medium SC1 compound.

As always, in case of bad weather, riders of all classes will have rain and intermediate tyres available.

More details on the tyre options for WorldSBK and WoldSSP are available in the technical sheets attached to this press release.

The 2020 Pirelli statistics for Estoril

• Total number of tyres brought by Pirelli: 3.706

WorldSBK

• Number of solutions (including dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class: 5 front and 7 rear

• Number of tyres available to each WorldSBK rider: 32 front and 35 rear

• Best Lap Awards Superbike won by: Michael van der Mark (PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team / Yamaha YZF R1) in 1’37.200 on lap 6 in Race 1 and Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) in 1’36.806 on lap 11 in Race 2

• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO Superbike in WorldSBK: 292,2 km/h, by Toprak Ragzatloiglu (PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team / Yamaha YZF R1) in Race 2 on lap 18

• Temperature in Race 1: air 19° C, asphalt 33° C

• Temperature in Race 2: air 22° C, asphalt 35° C

WorldSSP

• Number of solutions (including dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSSP class: 4 front and 4 rear.

• Number of tyres available to each WorldSSP rider: 22 front and 24 rear

• Best Lap Awards Supersport both won by: Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing / Yamaha YZF R6) in 1’40.053 on lap 5 in Race 1 and in 1’40.171 on lap 4 in Race 2

• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO Superbike in WorldSSP race: 270,0 km/h, by Philipp OETTL (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-6R) in Race 2 on lap 17