Source: Supplied.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) completed a triumphant return to competition on Friday at Portimao by scoring the fastest time for the day in the Motul FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK).

Rea’s FP1 time of 1m41.817s was enough to guarantee him the top spot ahead of Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), fastest in FP3 and Jordi Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse).

The Northern Irishman couldn’t match his morning pace but still topped the overall timesheets for Friday with a blistering lap of 1m41.817s. Second in the third session, Rea was beaten to the top in the closing minutes by Melandri.

The Italian managed to step up in FP3 after a promising day’s work and looks fiercer than ever at the Portuguese rollercoaster, as he faces his last four rounds with the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team.

Third of the day was Jordi Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) with one of his strongest performances of the year. Just half a second behind Rea, the Spaniard rode more laps than anyone on Friday – as he did at the official test three weeks ago – and showed encouraging signs for the weekend.

After languishing near the bottom of the standings in FP1 and FP2, everything seemed to click in the end for Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) as he took fourth position with his fastest FP3 lap, as well as the leading independent rider spot.

Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) ended Friday in fifth place, putting his RSV4 again amongst the frontrunners and showing promising pace throughout the day; as did Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Team), with the Spaniard in sixth place at the chequered flag.

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) improved his pace in the final Friday session but could only finish seventh on the combined timesheets, ahead of the two Yamahas of Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team).

A late crash for the Dutchman didn’t affect his qualification for tomorrow’s Superpole 2, while Lowes, who turns 28 today, left it late but eventually got the job done with the ninth best lap. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team) completed the top ten on Friday.

An already difficult day for Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) took a turn for the worse in FP3, as a crash and fire in his Panigale R left him out of action and having to qualify from tomorrow’s Superpole 1. Luckily the Welshman, who has recently recovered from successive collarbone injuries, walked away from the incident unharmed.

The FIM Supersport World Championship saw Jules Cluzel (NRT) back on top. The Frenchman improved later on in the day, as he was only fifth in the opening free practice session at Portimao, but in FP2 he found the pace to fly above the other frontrunners by 0.104 seconds.

Cluzel was joined by Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team) in a French one two at the top of the timesheets. The Frenchman had also finished FP1 in second position and a late charge in the latter session guaranteed that the 2017 WorldSSP champion would remain amongst the best on the day.

Championship leader Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing) – five points ahead of Cluzel in the standings – ended Friday 0.120 seconds behind his championship rival and will have to find matching pace in tomorrow’s Superpole 2. Australian Anthony West has been ruled out of the event after being provisionally suspended.

Detailed results