Rocked by the victories achieved in the last races and with a solid lead in the championship, the British Sam Lowes started in the best way his passage through the Algarve track, by setting the best time, in the first practice session, held at the Portuguese track.
Driving the Yamaha YZF R6 of the Yakhnich Motorsport team, the English rider achieved the best time of 1m46.046s, beating Irishman Jack Kennedy by just 217 thousandths, with the latter running in 1'46.263s on board his Honda CBR 600RR.
Third place, at the end of the first Supersport session, went to Kenan Sofuoglu, with the Turk achieving, on his best lap, a time just 344 thousandths higher than that achieved by Sam Lowes.
Fourth place would go to Luca Scassa, with Fabien Foret in fifth, driving Kawasaki, of the Indian team Mahi Racing.
Sam Lowes confirmed in the qualifying session, in the afternoon, that he was at ease with the Portimão track, returning to be the fastest with a time of 1'45.724s.
The Yamaha rider was even the only one who managed to run in the second 45 and managed to put Kenan Sofuoglu more than half a second behind.
Lowes' best time was achieved even in the final phase of the session, and not even a few drops of rain prevented the English driver from being able to keep the competition away again.
The third position confirmed the good progress of Jack Kennedy, being this the fastest of the men who are in national territory at the controls of the Honda CBR 600RR.
David Salom ended the journey in fourth place, with Fabien Foret fifth. A staggering already expected in Portimão, with the fastest riders in the championship showing themselves on this first day as the fastest along the more than four kilometers of the Algarve International Autodrome track.
Miguel Praia got the 27th position in qualifying, he who had been 26th in the morning session. Looking for the best settings on his bike, the Portuguese rider worked intensively with Team Lorini's technicians and hope tomorrow to be able to find a more satisfactory solution for the bike.
Superstock 1000 – Always Barrier
The Superstock 1000 class has many fast riders in the 2013 season and unsurprisingly the best positions were only known again towards the end.
In this category there are some riders in evolution from the Superbike World Cup teams, 'Junior' teams who find here the best way to evolve and meet those who will be able to defend their colors in the larger class in the near future.
In this first contact with the track, the fastest was Frenchman Sylvain Barrier, driving the official BMW with 1m46.456s, ahead of Lorenzo Savadori, who was far from the leader, achieving on his best lap a time of 1m47.733s.
Third place in the class at the end of the session – marked by some inconsequential crashes – would go to Romain Lanusse, a driver already experienced in the class and who managed his best lap with a record of 1'47.890s. The fourth place went to Jeremy Guarnoni with 1m47.954s, with the fifth place at the end of the free practice session being held by the Argentine Leandro Mercado with 1m48.267s.
Sylvain Barrier confirmed his ease with the track during the afternoon qualifying session, even improving his time from the morning session.
The French BMW rider managed his best lap of 1'45.881s, leaving Lorenzo Savadori in second position, with the latter achieving a time of 1'46.580s in his best time on the Algarve track.
Jeremy Guarnoni moved up one place from the opening session, ending this first day with third place, setting a time of 1'46.704, almost a second behind the unbeatable Barrier. Fourth place went to Eddi La Marra, who after a crash in the morning session managed to gain four positions with Team Barni's Ducati. Leandro Mercado was again very good with the Team Pedercini bike and repeated his fifth position from the previous session.
Ivo Lopes, the Portuguese representative in the class, was 18th in free practice with 1m51.372s and 23rd in qualifying with 1m50.694s.
Superstock 600 - Track Division
25 riders entered the track in the Superstock 600 category. In the chronological order of the event these were the first riders to make contact with the Portuguese track in this 2013 season and at the end of the session the fastest was Belgian Gauthier Duwelz who managed his best lap 1'49.054 to beat Italian Franco Morbidelli by just 379 milliseconds.
The differences between the first were reduced, with Christian Gamarino putting his Kawasaki in third place with just under six tenths of a second ahead of the fast Belgian. In fourth place was the Australian Adrian Nestorovic with Mike Jones being the fifth at the end of this first confrontation in the category.
In the early afternoon, the pilots of this Superstock 600 returned to the track for their first timed practice session, with the track proving to be slower and not allowing an improvement in times compared to those verified in the morning. In this second duel of the journey, the leadership ended up changing hands and at the end of the session the fastest would be Adrian Nestorovic, who managed his best lap of 1'49.152, about a tenth of a second slower than the record achieved in the morning by Duwelz .
Second place went to Italian Franco Morbidelli, who thus repeated the position of the morning session, although improving slightly from his previous time. Third place in this timed practice session went to Belgian Gauthier Duwelz, the fastest in the morning, being the Belgian also slower than in the morning session but holding a position that earns him a provisional place on the front row of the starting grid. Fourth place would go to Bastien Chesaux, with Tony Covena being fifth.
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