The eleventh WorldSBK round got underway today at the Autodromo Internacional Algarve in Portimão, Portugal.
This is the last round for the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team, which means that both rider Bradley Ray and Sandro Carusi’s technical staff are determined to round out the season in the best possible way.
In hot and sunny conditions, the British rider took to the track this morning for the first free practice. Setting a time of 1’42”782, he positioned nineteenth.
In the second practice, which ran in the afternoon in higher temperatures, Ray was able to improve slightly on his earlier reference, holding nineteenth place in the combined standings.
The Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK rider will be back out tomorrow for the Superpole and the first of the weekend’s races.
"Unfortunately, despite the team working hard to test different set-ups, we haven’t yet found the ideal solution. We are nevertheless confident that we can improve ahead of the races.”
“This first day of practice at Portimao has been far from easy. We’re still a long way from finding good race pace and are not yet sure about the direction to take. We’ll analyse all the data this evening to try and understand what we can do tomorrow to be faster.”
