Rea keeps ahead as Bautista recovers from fall in FP3

Full WorldSBK FP3 results from Portimao

Jonathan Rea has taken a clean sweep of top times in practice at Portimao as World Superbike title rival Alvaro Bautista crashed midway through the 20-minute session.

The Kawasaki rider, who returns to Portugal having won the last seven consecutive races at Portimao, looks in ominous form once again with an unbeaten record in practice thanks to his 1m 41.628s to improve on the fastest lap of the weekend so far.

While Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Bautista kept within touching distance of Rea, the Spanish rider’s progress was stalled by a fall at Turn 5. The former MotoGP rider was able to remount and return the action without any lasting issues but the fall will be an untimely knock to his confidence having already been nursing a shoulder injury sustained in a crash at Laguna Seca.

Loris Baz impressed to surge up to third place in FP3 for Ten Kate Yamaha, edging out BMW’s Tom Sykes, with Chaz Davies also finding key lap time gains to take fifth place on the factory Ducati.

That saw Leon Haslam pushed down to sixth place for the factory Kawasaki squad, with Puccetti Kawasaki’s Toprak Razgatlioglu also displaced to seventh, but ahead of GRT Yamaha’s Sandro Cortese and BMW’s Markus Reiterberger.

Despite failing to improve on his best lap time from Friday, Michael van der Mark held on to a top 10 spot in FP3 directly ahead of Pata Yamaha team-mate Alex Lowes in 11^th place.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi slotted into 12^th in front of fellow independent Ducati rider Eugene Laverty and Kawasaki duo Jordi Torres and Leandro Mercado.

Marco Melandri failed to find similar gains as he dropped to 16^th place in FP3 for GRT Yamaha but stayed ahead of Honda duo Takumi Takahashi and Ryuichi Kiyonari.

World Superbike wildcard Sylvain Barrier claimed 19^th place for Brixx Ducati ahead of Alessandro Delbianco on the Honda.