#PortugueseWorldSBK Friday Debriefs

Posted March 28, 2026

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Elf Marc VDS Racing Team’s Sam Lowes. Credits: WorldSBK

WorldSBK on Friday at Portimão had a surprising feature of a rider fresh back from injury topping the times. Elf Marc VDS Racing Team’s Sam Lowes was fastest late in FP1 and then again in FP2 after a longer stint of practice. This is what he said when asked for his own assessment of the day: “For a few laps, I’m quite good. After five or six laps, I have no real pain. I’m using a lot of the right side to compromise with the left, a little bit like in braking at Turn 5 and Turn 9, but it’s not too bad. My pace is not amazing, but not bad. My speed is good, and it’s nice to be here and in the mix. Got a few issues this morning, so we missed a bit of time, but in the afternoon, it was quite good. We tried the different front tyres. It was a positive day. […] It’s already a physical track, and then with the injuries, like I said, I have no real pain, just a bit of weakness. I’m using a lot of my right side. I think we can improve a bit.”

Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Nicolò Bulega. Credit: WorldSBK

Interesting case for today’s potential pre-race favourite, Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Nicolò Bulega finished second overall. Ducati were 1-2-3 overall. Bulega is yet to feel fully confident in the machinery: “Honestly, I don’t know why, but the feeling today was not very good. I struggle a bit to find a good feeling and ride the bike like I want, and like always. Today I was at 90%. It was difficult to improve and to make every lap always the same because the feeling was not perfect, so I hope to improve tomorrow and to find that 10% […] In general, I don’t feel very comfortable on the bike, but especially braking and the last part of braking, I feel that the bike is nervous, and I can’t put the wheel where I want, and then I also miss turning for this reason, because when you don’t brake like you want, then you also miss the turning. I think we have to work to find a better solution in that area.”

Barni Spark Racing Team’s Yari Montella. Credit: WorldSBK

Barni Spark Ducati’s Yari Montella was the third fastest overall after seemingly making a jump this season up to be one of the front runners after looking fast in the test, as he then proved by his front row start, which he converted to a podium at Race One in Phillip Island. When asked about his expectations for the day, he said: “I don’t know. For sure, I know that here, like always, Nicolò [Bulega], he will be faster. Also Sam Lowes, Alex Lowes, and Lecuona. I think we are more right that we can fight for a podium. So I hope to be ready with my feeling with my bike to fight for the podium because at the end, it’s our goal to be more or less top five. I think it’s something that we can catch and we can put our focus on.”

ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team’s Miguel Oliveira. Credit: WorldSBK

ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team rider and Portugal’s own Miguel Oliveira finished eighth overall and spoke about this weekend’s potential: “I was feeling really fast with the bike, got some traffic, didn’t get the best lap time in, but the potential was much higher. Ideally, I would do a 1.40.3, which would put me three tenths off of the fastest lap time. It was one of those days where you don’t see on the classification the real work or the real potential that we did but nevertheless we had a small issue with the real work or the real potential that we did but we had a small issue with a tire or with the electronics in the second stint with another set of tires so that didn’t help to put everything tigether abd reallly get a better result in terms of lap time but we did what we could with the first stint so we have that data and tomorrow we obviously try to focus on the qualifyig to be as high as possible, I would say the fiurst two roles is a good result.”

WorldSBK’s Superpole is at 11:15 LT, and Race 1 is at 15:30 here in Portimão.

Full Combined Friday Practice Times Order