Three third places, and podiums, for Jonathan Rea at the Portimao circuit, and a fourth and two fifths for his teammate, Alex Lowes.
WorldSBK's return to the 4.592-kilometre-long Portimao circuit, located near the Algarve coast in southern Portugal, started well for the two KRT riders, Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes, who set out to find an effective set-up during the first hours on the asphalt.
Thus, Rea took advantage of Friday to try to find more traction on the entrance to the turns while Lowes worked to improve braking performance.
At the end of the day, Jonathan, who was the second fastest rider in the FP2 session, would finish fourth overall, with Alex seventh.
On Saturday, Rea started the first race of the weekend, delayed and shortened to 14 laps, from the pole position and led the race for the first five laps, until he was overtaken by Toprak Razgatlioglu. After the Turk overtook, Álvaro Bautista arrived, who passed him with five laps to go. Rea overtook him again, moving into second place, but Bautista again overtook the KRT rider. So, at the end, Rea finished in third position.
Lowes, for his part, started from third place on the grid, after a very good qualifying session. His career would be summed up in a constant fight with Axel Bassani. Finally, the British finished in fifth position.
In Sunday morning's Superpole Race, Rea and Lowes pushed hard from the start, with the Northern Irish rider even setting a new lap record of 1m40.135s on lap four as he closed in on the leading duo of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista. Rea finished third and Lowes fourth.
In the second race, it seemed as if Rea had planned from the start not to let the leader, Razgatlioglu, pass him on the first lap. The KRT rider tried to lead the race and control the pace to save the tires and save them for the last few laps. But he wasn't able to keep up with him, and was overtaken by both Toprak and Bautista, finishing third for the third time on the weekend.
Lowes had another strong race following his performance in the morning Superpole, holding on to fourth position until he was overtaken by Michael Ruben Rinaldi. He would get very close to the rival again in the closing laps, but it wasn't enough to retake fourth place, so he had to settle for fifth. Alex is now sixth overall in the championship with three rounds and nine races to go.
The next time they meet, it will be at the San Juan Villicum circuit in Argentina, between October 21 and 23.
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