Pirelli is ready to face Portimão for the third round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship
The riders of the WorldSBK class also for this event can count on the standard solutions used in Jerez plus the new front and rear development solutions brought to Jerez de la Frontera last weekend
After having successfully completed the Pirelli Spanish Round at Jerez de la Frontera, Pirelli will be busy next weekend at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, where the third round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship will take place from 7th to 9th August.
Also for this round, double races are scheduled over the weekend for the three Championship classes, as the riders will hit the track on Saturday for Race 1 and on Sunday for Race 2, in addition to the TISSOT® SUPERPOLE RACE for WorldSBK.
The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve was designed by architect Ricardo Pina and was inaugurated exactly ten years ago. This track is 4592 metres long, with 9 right-handers and six left-hand corners and a configuration with a maximum gradient of 57 metres, a long turn radii that goes from 23 metres to a maximum of 207 metres, and a finishing straight which has a total length of 835 metres.
The Portuguese circuit remains one of the circuits that best brings out the capacity of the tyre to operate in extremely different conditions because of its altitude changes and demanding blind entry curves. Specifically, the rear tyre must go from low to extremely high temperatures, the front must be able to come into the turns mentioned above quickly and precisely. Unlike the rear, which undergoes few but intense mechanical/thermal stresses, the front is always engaged in slow turns with a quick entry and small curvature radii (tight corner) which forces the rider to brake sharply, sometimes downhill.
The most challenging part for the tyres is the last turn which is 350 metres long and takes 6.5 seconds to navigate, and due to the wide turning radius (about 150 metres), the bike is in constant acceleration and goes from 150 to 250 kph at a lean angle of about 50°. So there is a remarkable increase in temperature on the side of the tyre affected by the lean, particularly for the rear tyre which must withstand the high temperature while simultaneously ensuring strong lateral force and allowing the bike to accelerate. Corners 5, 8, 11, 13, and 14 have on the contrary a very tight radius (about 30 metres), which forces the rider to brake to an extremely low speed. Halfway through the turn the bike needs the rear tyre, which is very cold, to provide strong longitudinal acceleration up to 1G at a lean angle of 50°. The tyres are particularly cold, especially coming into the left handers (numbers 5 and 13).
The solutions for the WorldSBK and WorldSSP600 classes:
In the WorldSBK class, riders will have available both the standard and development solutions used last weekend in Jerez de la Frontera.
There are three options for the front, two standard and one development solution. The standard SC1 represents the most successful front tyre during the last weekend and the last season of the Championship, while the standard SC2 is an evolution of the development SC2 X1071 used in 2019. There will be also available the soft development solution SC1 Y1231, which has a new structure designed to increase lateral thrust when cornering.
As for the rear options, the standard soft SC0 is joined by two development solutions of the same compound but with different characteristics: the soft development solution X1351, introduced the previous year in Jerez, and the soft development solution Z0121, presented last weekend in Jerez, which has important changes in the shoulder area to improve the footprint and increase the lateral thrust at maximum lean angles. In addition to these solutions, at the rear the riders will also be able to use the SCX tyre in super soft compound that can be used during the qualifying session in preparation for the Superpole® tyre, and possibly for the Tissot Superpole Race and the full-length race if the circuit allows it.
The last rear option is the Superpole® tyre that will allow riders to make a lap during the Superpole® in search of the absolute best time to position themselves on the starting grid.
In the WorldSSP600 category, on the other hand, there will be four dry solutions available to riders, two front and as many rear options, which are all standard solutions. For the front there will be the standard SC1 soft compound, and the standard SC2 medium compound that allows more wear resistance than the first option.
As for the rear, the WorldSSP600 riders will have available the standard SC0 soft compound, further improved to offer maximum performance, and the standard SC1 medium compound, designed to offer the right compromise between top, constant performance and limited wear.
As always, in case of bad weather, riders of all classes will have rain and intermediate tyres available.
More details on the race solutions for WorldSBK and WorldSSP600 classes are available in the technical sheets attached to this press release.
The 2019 Pirelli statistics for Portimão:
- Total number of tyres brought by Pirelli: 3.537
- Number of solutions (including dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class: 5 front and 8 rear
- Number of tyres available for each WorldSBK rider: 31 front and 36 rear
- Number of solutions for the WorldSSP600 class (including dry, intermediate and wet): 4 front and 4 rear
- Number of tyres available for each WorldSSP600 rider: 21 front and 22 rear
- WorldSBK Best Lap Awards both won by: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in 1'41.418 at the 2nd lap (Race 1) and Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) in 1'41.853 at the 2nd lap (Race 2)
- WorldSSP Best Lap Award won by: Randy Krummenacher (Bardahl Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team / Yamaha YZF R6), in 1'45.373 at the 5th lap
- Temperature in Race 1: air 30° C, asphalt 45° C
- Temperature in Race 2: air 30° C, asphalt 48° C
