Aruba.it Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista topped off European winter testing on top of the WorldSBK times as Wednesday’s action concluded at Portimao. Bautista was back in charge almost as soon as the final day got up to speed on the Algarve.
The reigning champion’s 1’39.035 record breaking effort - set on his 13th lap and before the Spaniard suffered a turn seven crash - sat over half a second faster than his teammate’s best of the previous afternoon.
Both Kawasaki’s Jonathan Rea and said teammate Michael Rinaldi had improved to match the leading Ducati with just a tenth separating the trio by lunch, with all three running under lap record pace.
Toprak Razgatlioglu was best of the rest in fourth, equally under the record after a handful of laps and aiming for the top three before Rinaldi denied him.