Portimao, Portugal

Augusto Fernandez To Replace Jonathan Rea In Portimão

By David Emmett |

The foot injury which Jonathan Rea suffered in preseason testing at Phillip Island will force him to miss at least the first two rounds of the 2025 WorldSBK season. The Pata Yamaha rider fractured several bones in his left foot, requiring surgery, which he had back at home in Northern Ireland. The recovery period for that injury is such that the Northern Irishman is to miss both the Portimão WorldSBK test on March 14-15, and the second WorldSBK round at the Portuguese circuit on the weekend of March 30th.

Yamaha's newly signed test rider Augusto Fernandez is to substitute for the injured Rea. The young Spaniard, who lost his ride with the Tech3 KTM MotoGP team last year, has been busy testing for Yamaha's MotoGP project, but he will take Rea's place on the Yamaha R1 for both the test and the race at Portimão.

2025 Portimão Moto2 Test Day 2 Times: Aron Canet Smashes Lap Record

By David Emmett |

The second day of the Portimão Moto2 test saw lap records smashed. Aron Canet took three tenths off Manu Gonzalez' qualifying record set at the race in March last year. The Fantic Racing rider finished just ahead of Marc VDS' Jake Dixon, and IntactGP's Manu Gonzalez, who was himself two tenths under his own record.

Diogo Moreira was fourth quickest on the other Fantic Racing Kales, ahead of Barry Baltus and Zonta van den Goorbergh. Everyone was much quicker on the second day of the test.

Portimão WorldSBK Test Round Up: Toprak Is Back, Redding Is Hungry, Rea Turns To New Crew Chief

By Steve English |

The WorldSBK paddock decamped to the Iberian Peninsula for four days of winter testing. Unfortunately, rain and wind followed the paddock from Jerez to Portimão. Teams were severely hampered with running at both tests and the majority could only use two days of running to try and get ready for the start of the coming campaign.

While the tests wasn’t as efficient as manufacturers would have hoped it certainly wasn’t a waste of time. The majority of the field felt that enough was done to be ready for Phillip Island, because we’ll have two days testing at the thrilling Australian venue, and a mid-March test at Portimão will allow them to get fully ready for the start of the European season at the Portuguese venue.

BMW’s talisman is back on track

After missing the Jerez test a week previously Toprak Razgatlioglu was back on track at Portimao. The Turkish rider arrived mid-afternoon on Monday and was immediately the centre of attention. Speaking to him as he left the garage he was relaxed but obviously concerned about his finger injury.

2025 Portimão WorldSBK January Test Day 2 Times: Rain Disrupts Testing

By David Emmett |

The weather has not looked kindly on testing for the WorldSBK series so far in 2025. After a windy but relatively dry day on Tuesday, testing on Wednesday was mostly wet, with only occasional dry spells. Even when the track was dry, the times were 1.6 seconds off Toprak Razgatlioglu's best time.

As a result, nine of the 21 WorldSBK riders who rode on Tuesday decided to sit out the Wednesday session and save their testing days, while Philipp Oettl was the only WorldSSP rider of the six who rode on Tuesday to take to the track on Wednesday.

2025 Portimão WorldSBK January Test Day 1 Times: Razgatlioglu Back On Top

By David Emmett |

Toprak Razgatlioglu ended the first day of the Portimão WorldSBK test as fastest on his first day back in the saddle of his BMW M1000RR. Despite an injured right index finger, which he hurt in a training crash and which forced him to wear a special glove, the reigning world champion mastered rather tricky conditions, with a lot of wind and a track that was still damp in patches, to just nip ahead of Bimota's Axel Bassani. 

2025 Provisional WorldSBK Calendar Announced: 12 Races, 2 Continents

By David Emmett |

The FIM and Dorna have announced the provisional WorldSBK calendar for the 2025 season. The calendar has a familiar look, with 12 races, kicking off at the end of February at Phillip Island. 

The Australian round is the only race outside of Europe once more. Though there are persistent rumors that Dorna is working on other races outside of Europe, they have been unable to sign contracts for them just yet. The WorldSBK series will visit the Balaton Park Circuit in Hungary for the first time this year, though they were scheduled to go in 2024 and that round was canceled.

2025 Provisional MotoGP Calendar: 22 Races, Kazakhstan, India Out, Hungary, Brno In

By David Emmett |

The 2025 MotoGP calendar has been published at last, at least in its provisional form. The calendar contains 22 rounds, starting on March 2nd at Buriram in Thailand, and ending as usual at Valencia on November 16th.

The calendar looks a little different this year, in several different ways. Firstly, Qatar is now the fourth round, being held in mid April, rather than the first round. Argentina and Austin follow the season opener in Thailand, with MotoGP heading back to Europe after Qatar.

Jerez and Le Mans are in their traditional places, at the end of April and the middle of May respectively, before MotoGP heads to Silverstone, and a much earlier date for the British GP at the end of May. From the UK, the series heads back to Spain, to Aragon, again a much earlier race at the beginning of June. From Aragon, the series heads to Mugello in the middle of June, in a race that is back-to-back with Assen.

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