BMW MOTORRAD ITALIA GOLDBET SBK TEAM - PORTIMAO - FRIDAY

Free Practice 1 was held under ideal conditions – 26°C air temperature, 40°C on the track – and saw a good competitiveness and very close lap-time especially for the top-10 riders.Ayrton Badovini and Michel Fabrizio ended up 5th and 7th with a gap from the leader of 175 and 296 thousands of a second.

Qualifying 1 saw a slight temperature increase, as the track reached 42°C. Michel Fabrizio managed to recover several positions in the second half of the session finishing 9th with a time of 1’44.373, while Ayrton Badovini set a 1’44.429 in the final minutes and he was 11th at the chequered flag.

Sylvain Barrier lead the Superstock 1000 classification in both FIM Superstock 1000 Cup sessions of today and was able to take the best out of the job done in last week’s two day Portimão test. Sylvain set a best time of 1’43.196 in Qualifying 1.

Serafino Foti, BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet Superbike Team Sporting Director, said: "It’s been a quite positive day, as both in Free Practice and in Qualifying we were able to be in the top-10 or right outside of it. We still have to find a way to be faster in the first split as both riders are having problems there and lost a lot of time. If we’ll manage to sort that out it’d be a good step forward.

We’re happy about today’s performance in Superstock 1000 even though we know we have a bit of an advantage thanks to last Saturday and Sunday’s test. Sylvain looked very focused and comfortable on the bike and was able to stay at the top with some margin over the opponents.”

Michel Fabrizio #84 FP1 7th (1'44.639) QP1 9th (1'44.373) : "I wanted to try the 190 soft tyre but we didn’t get the results expected so tomorrow I think we will use the wider tyre solution. We still struggle a bit on the set-up due to the temperature increase in the afternoon, that made us lose a bit the right direction. In the second part we were able to get back on track, though.”

Ayrton Badovini #86 FP1 5th (1'44.519) QP1 11th (1'44.429) : "We got some indications today about the right tyre to use as the wider profile one gives a better performance. I set my fastest lap time in qualifying with the 190 tyre and so I’m quite confident for tomorrow, also because we still have something to adjust set-up wise.”

Free Practice 1 1) Tom Sykes - Kawasaki 1'44.343 2) Marco Melandri - BMW Motorrad Motorsport +0.113 3) Leon Camier - Suzuki +0.117 4)  Leon Haslam - BMW Motorrad Motorsport +0.157 5) Ayrton Badovini - BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK Team +0.176 7) Michel Fabrizio - BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK Team +0.296

Qualifying 1 1) Marco Melandri - BMW Motorrad Motorsport 1'43.196 2) Eugene Laverty - Aprilia +0.384 3) Tom Sykes - Kawasaki +0.535 5) Leon Haslam - BMW Motorrad Motorsport +0.725 9) Michel Fabrizio - BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK Team +1.177 11) Ayrton Badovini - BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK Team +1.233 

Superstock 1000 Qualifying 1) Sylvain Barrier - BMW Motorrad Italia GoldBet SBK Team 1'46.700 2) Bryan Staring - Kawasaki +0.433 3) Jeremy Guarnoni - Kawasaki +0.537 4) Christoffer Bergman - Kawasaki +0.628 5) Eddi La Marra - Ducati +0.839