2025 Portuguese World Superbike: Friday Practice As It Happened

Pit lane is open in Portimao and we are underway for 45 minutes of FP2.

Yari Montella impressed this morning. The Italian rookie not only beat his established teammate Danilo Petrucci, but was fifth-fastest overall and only just over a tenth behind Bulega.

There was no lap time set by Toprak Razgatlioglu this morning, as technical issues with his BMW M1000 RR from his first lap in FP1 saw him unable to leave the garage after his shortened first run.

Nicolo Bulega was fastest this morning, one of only two riders to lap in the 1:40s. The other was his Aruba.it Racing Ducati teammate, Alvaro Bautista, who was 0.019 seconds behind.

Axel Bassani ensured that, even though all the bikes in the top-three were Italian, they weren't all Ducatis as he put his Bimota third-fastest with a late lap.

Welcome back to our Friday coverage from the Portuguese World Superbike round. FP2 is coming up in just under 10 minutes at 15:00 local time.

Portuguese WorldSBK - FP1 Results

The chequered flag is out in Portimao for FP1, and it's Nicolo Bulega who ends fastest ahead of Alvaro Bautista and Axel Bassani.

Michael van der Mark and Yari Montella round out the top five, and indeed no time set at the end of the session for Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Some personal best laps being threatened. Bassani the first to do so, he goes third on the Bimota, 0.069s behind Bulega. Vierge up to ninth, to, and Mackenzie 14th on the MIE Honda.

Crash for Ryan Vickers up at turn 13. He's back on the bike and riding it back to pit lane. 14th at the minute for the rookie.

Into the final five minutes now and it's still Bulega fastest ahead of Bautista and Montella.

Just on Iannone's issue earlier, world feed reporting that it was a rear brake problem. He's now fourth, having been bumped down a spot by Montella who is still there in third place.

Montella has shot up to third. Not quite a 1:40, but a good showing from the Italian as we approach the last 10 minutes.

Shaun Muir telling the world feed that there's a "small issue" on Razgatlioglu's bike, but the BMW team isn't sure what it is yet and Muir said that he doesn't expect the Turkish rider to be back out in this session. He suggested it could be because of an engine change, that the engine used in this session wasn't used in the test and hasn't been in the bike since Race 2 in Phillip Island.

Into the final 25 minutes now and Iannone has finally been out. Decent speed, too, for the Italian - he's third-fastest  and just 0.208s behind Bulega.

Paul Denning just spoke to the world feed, confirming that Jonathan Rea will be back trackside later this weekend after his Australia injury. Still no confirmation of the six-time champion's expected return date.

Jason O'Halloran is replacing him this weekend after Augusto Fernandez was called back to MotoGP to replace Miguel Oliveira in Texas. The Australian hasn't been to Portimao since a test in 2019 and hasn't ridden the WorldSBK-spec Yamaha before, so having also missed the test two weeks ago it's perhaps not a surprise to see him at the bottom of the times, 7.673 seconds off the pace.

Garage door down now at Razgatlioglu's box. Ongoing issues for the reigning champion.

Further issues for Razgatlioglu. He attempted to leave the pits but had barely threw his leg over before returning to the garage again.

Bautista briefly hit the top and was the first rider into the 1:40s, but Bulega is now back to the top on a 1:40.977.

Garrett Gerloff is going slowly on the service road. Looks like a technical problem for the Kawasaki rider.

World feed commentary reporting that Andrea Iannone has been delayed in his start to FP1 with a helmet issue. No time set so far for the Italian.

Bulega down to a 1:41.232 now. Petrucci now up to second place, while van der Mark, Alex Lowes, and Vierge now round out the top five. Bautista there, too, in sixth.

Tito Rabat was the first rider out and he's the first rider to crash, too. He looks unhurt, but he's dropped the Motoxracing Yamaha at turn eight.

It's a short first run for Razgatlioglu. He's back in the pits having not set a time.

Meanwhile, Bulega has hit the top and is already down to a 1:41.381.

First lap times coming in now and it's a Bimota 1-2 with Alex Lowes ahead of Axel Bassani.

Times are in the 1:42s for most and a 1:41 for Lowes, but Razgatlioglu was under the lap record and in the 1:39s in the test.

Pit lane now open in Portimao and Tito Rabat is out first, but more or less everyone is heading out immediately.