Portimao MotoGP test times - Wednesday (Session 2)

Ahead of the inaugural Portimao MotoGP round on November 20-22, a two-day test and track familiarisation outing is taking place at the Portuguese circuit on Wednesday and Thursday.

Factory test riders from all six MotoGP manufacturers are present - Dani Pedrosa (KTM), Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha ), Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki), Stefan Bradl (Honda), Michele Pirro (Ducati), Bradley Smith (Aprilia) and Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) - to gather tyre and set-up data for the season finale.

Peter McLaren

07 Oct 2020

Aleix Espargaro, MotoGP, Emilia Romagna MotoGP, 18 September 2020

Ahead of the inaugural Portimao MotoGP round on November 20-22, a two-day test and track familiarisation outing is taking place at the Portuguese circuit on Wednesday and Thursday.

Lorenzo is making his first test appearance since Sepang in February, but still riding a 2019-spec Yamaha.

Joining the test riders on Wednesday were most of the MotoGP race riders, learning the circuit using street bikes before heading straight to Le Mans for this weekend's French Grand Prix, although only a few had timing transponders fitted:

Joan Mir and Alex Rins (Suzuki), Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi (Monster Yamaha), Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci (Ducati Team), Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati), Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda), Miguel Oliveira (KTM Tech3), Brad Binder and Pol Espargaro (KTM Factory), Johann Zarco and Tito Rabat (Esponsorama) and Alex Marquez (Repsol Honda).

Since KTM does not have a Superbike in its production range, its riders were using unbranded Superbikes from other manufacturers.

As the only factory still with full Concessions, Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro was able to ride his 2020 RS-GP rather than a road bike.

The Spaniard was fastest in Session 1 with a 1m 40.880s, then improved to a 1m 40.170s in the afternoon, beating the existing WorldSBK lap records.

Team-mate Smith (currently replacing Andrea Iannone) was second quickest (+0.952s). The Englishman will hand over to Savadori tomorrow, but Bradl (replacing Marc Marquez at Repsol Honda) will test on both days before travelling to France.

The track action was divided into two sessions, the first from 9:00-13:00, followed by a lunch break, then the second session from 14:00-17:00...

Portimao MotoGP test times - Wednesday (Session 2)
	Rider	Nat	Team	Time	Lap
1	Aleix Espargaro	ITA	Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)	1'40.170s	14/23
2	Bradley Smith	GBR	Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)	+0.952s	23/26
3	Stefan Bradl	GER	Honda Test Rider (RC213V)	+1.556s	5/25
4	Michele Pirro	ITA	Ducati Test Rider (GP20)	+2.019s	5/6
5	Dani Pedrosa	SPA	KTM Test Rider (RC16)	+2.119s	31/33
6	Sylvain Guintoli	FRA	Suzuki Test Rider (GSX-RR)	+2.166s	17/25
7	Maverick Vinales	SPA	Monster Yamaha (Production Bike)	+3.529s	41/42
8	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Red Bull KTM Tech3 (Production Bike)	+4.530s	5/17
9	Brad Binder	RSA	Red Bull KTM (Production Bike)*	+4.650s	25/29
10	Jorge Lorenzo	SPA	Yamaha Test Rider (YZR-M1)	+4.740s	8/18

Portimao MotoGP test times - Wednesday (Session 1)
	Rider	Nat	Team	Time	Lap
1	Aleix Espargaro	ITA	Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)	1'40.880s	31/42
2	Michele Pirro	ITA	Ducati Test Rider (GP20)	+0.774s	24/29
3	Bradley Smith	GBR	Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)	+1.172s	37/39
4	Stefan Bradl	GER	Honda Test Rider (RC213V)	+1.389s	38/48
5	Sylvain Guintoli	FRA	Suzuki Test Rider (GSX-RR)	+1.474s	23/28
6	Dani Pedrosa	SPA	KTM Test Rider (RC16)	+1.898s	43/47
7	Miguel Oliveira	POR	Red Bull KTM Tech3 (Production Bike)	+3.882s	9/16
8	Jorge Lorenzo	SPA	Yamaha Test Rider (YZR-M1)	+5.308s	28/31
9	Brad Binder	RSA	Red Bull KTM (Production Bike)	+6.150s	16/19

*Rookie.

Portimao WorldSBK records:
Best lap:
Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki 1m 40.372s (2019)
Fastest race lap:
Jonathan Rea GBR Kawasaki 1m 41.272s (2019)