Gordon Ritchie | September 18, 2017
Rea Puts the #1 Top Again At Portimao
Having won both races at Portimao Jonathan Rea (KRT) then went on to set the fastest time of the subsequent tests, with a 1:42.313 lap. He outpaced Chaz Davies and his 1:42.711 and wrapped up his work a little early compared to his main rival.
He was using some chassis setting to improve things next year, especially important if the much-talked-about rev-limits come to pass.
“For u, it is important that we can maximize the chassis balance. The chassis next year is going to be very important for us. We seemed to do that and we also had some different final gearing than we used on the race weekend. I wasn’t better and wasn’t worse. We did not so many laps.”
With Tom Sykes recuperating from an operation on his left little finger and missing this test, there were still familiar names at the top of the 12 man entry list.
Marco Melandri and his official Ducati were third fastest, but there was a surprise new name right up among the fastest, Toprak Razgatlioglu. Almost 100 percent certain to be a Superbike rider for his current Kawasaki Puccetti Racing squad in 2018, he rode a non-factory ZX-10RR to fourth best time, 1:43.249. Less than a second from Rea, who had helped him to learn the lines and when to pick up and nail the throttle on a slick-tired Superbike, Razgatlioglu was a revelation underneath the eye of his mentor, Kenan Sofuoglu.
Razgatlioglu simply wowed the test paddock with his times, setting a row of 1:43s, and his presence in Superbike is eagerly anticipated now.
Behind him, and still unhappy with progress in general, was Eugene Laverty, also just less than a second from Rea.
“For me it was a huge difference in electronics and the tires were difficult to understand in the first run but later I started to adapt to them,” said Razgatlioglu after the completion of his test. “Then we modified everything and I started to like it. Johnny Rea was a big help to me to understand the right lines and how to ride a Superbike.”
Rounding out the top 10 was Michael van der Mark, Alex Lowes, Lorenzo Savadori, Jordi Torres and Riccardo Russo.