WorldSBK in Portimão: Rea wins Race 1 on Kawasaki ahead of Davies (Ducati) and Van Der Mark (Yamaha); all the riders on the podium use standard Pirelli tyres in the larger size

After the summer break, everyone had been anxiously awaiting the tenth round of the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship, being held this weekend at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve of Portimão, in Portugal.
In the first event of the weekend, Race 1 of WorldSBK, four-time World Champion Jonathan Rea with his ZX-10RR did not disappoint the many British fans who came out to the circuit, winning the race smoothly after taking pole position in the morning.The Northern Irish Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK rider finished ahead of Ducati rider Chaz Davies, second, and the rider for the Iwata-based manufacturer, Michael Van Der Mark, third, but most importantly, he increased his lead in the overall standings over Álvaro Bautista, who was unable to leave with anything better than a fourth-place finish in this race.

As for the tyres, almost all the riders chose the standard solutions in larger size brought by Pirelli, specifically the SC1 in 125/70 on the front and the SC0 in 200/65 on the rear, further proof of the great reliability and outstanding performance of the products in the new, larger size range, even on difficult tracks like Portimão, where excellent agility is required of the tyres.

At the start of Race 1, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR), Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR) and Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1) got off the front row well, but already during the first lap, the German was overtaken, first by Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) and then by Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R). In the meantime, on the second lap, Jonathan Rea set the new record lap with a time of 1’41.418. During the third lap, the Welshman moved in behind Tom Sykes, overtaking Leon Haslam, whereas Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R), after starting from sixth, slipped back to fourteenth place and struggled to match the race pace.
In the meantime, Michael Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1) also clawed his way up to third, whereas Tom Sykes relinquished second to Chaz Davies and slipped back to fifth behind Leon Haslam. A few laps later, the Dutch Yamaha rider also managed to gain the upper hand against the Ducati rider, moving in behind the race and championship leader, only to return the position to Davies on the ninth lap.
While Rea continued to lead with ease and an advantage of almost 5 seconds over his direct followers, a battle for second was being waged between Chaz Davies and Michael Van Der Mark. In the end, the Welshman came away with the upper hand, coming back from twelfth to second in an outstanding race, managing to finish behind the race winner, Jonathan Rea. Third place went to Michael Van Der Mark who finished ahead of Leon Haslam’s Kawasaki. With his Ducati, on the other hand, Álvaro Bautista had to settle for fourth after starting from the sixth spot on the grid.

WorldSBK Race 1 Standings:

1) J. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
2) C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
3) M. Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1)
4) Á. Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
5) L. Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
6) T. Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
7) A. Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1)
8) S. Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1)
9) M. Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1)
10) M. Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
11) J. Torres (Team Pedercini Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
12) M. Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR)
13) T. Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR)
14) L. Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
15) T. Takahashi (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team / Honda CBR1000RR)
16) L. Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R1)
17) S. Barrier (Brixx Performance / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
18) A. Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team / Honda CBR1000RR)
19) R. Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team / Honda CBR1000RR)
RT) E. Laverty (Team Goeleven / Ducati Panigale V4 R)

The Pirelli solutions chosen by the WorldSBK riders for Race 1:

In Race 1, most of the riders used the standard solutions both on the front and on the rear. More specifically, for the front, everyone chose the standard 125/70 SC1 (option A), with the exception of the two Honda riders, Ryūichi Kiyonari and Takumi Takahashi.The rear tyre choice was not quite as unanimous. Although 2/3 of the riders opted for the standard 200/65 SC0 tyre (option B), there were those, like Alex Lowes, Álvaro Bautista, Eugene Laverty and Alessandro Delbianco, who preferred the X1351 SC0 development solution (option A), while Jordi Torres and Leandro Mercado went with the SCX solution (option X).

Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Race 1:

• Winner of the PIRELLI BEST LAP AWARD: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in 1'41.418 at the 2^nd lap 

• Most used front solution: standard SC1 125/70 (18 out of 20 riders) 

• Most used rear solution: standard SC0 200/65 (14 out of 20 riders) 

• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 316.8 km/h, achieved by Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) in the 11^th lap 

• Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the Superbike class: 4 front and 7 rear Number of tyres available for each Superbike rider: 63, including 30 front and 33 rear 

• Air temperature: 30° C 

• Asphalt temperature: 45° C