Mixed fortunes for the Brits in Portimao

Portimao played host not only to the second round of the World Superbike and Supersport championships, but also the opening weekend of the year for World Sportbike and the WCR championship. These additional classes bring extra British flavour to the World Superbike paddock, with riders from the British Isles lining up in all four classes.

The weekend ultimately proved to be a mixed bag for the Brits, with varying luck across all four classes.

Bimota’s Alex Lowes was the highest placed British rider throughout the weekend. A brace of fourth places for the #22 Lowes consolidated both he and the Bimota package as consistent podium contenders, the Brit narrowly missing out on a podium place in the final race of the weekend.

Despite the podium being just out of reach for Lowes, the #22’s performances this weekend have underlined the impressive progress made by the Bimota squad in just a year of competition in the World Superbike championship.

Despite still nursing a broken wrist sustained at the season opener, Marc VDS Ducati’s Sam Lowes enjoyed a solid weekend in the Algarve. Although the #14 topped Friday’s practice sessions, there was some speculation about how well Lowes’ wrist would fare over race distance. Nevertheless, Sam was able to grin and bare the pain to bring home a solid points haul from the weekend. Three fifth places were an impressive return for the Marc VDS rider, such a strong set of results begs the question as to just how strong the weekend could have been, if Sam were fully fit. Nonetheless, the weekend bodes well for the potential of an uninjured Sam Lowes this season.

Despite missing the test at Portimao, Optical Express MGM Ducati’s Tarran Mackenzie started the race action with a points finish, crossing the line in fourteenth position. The weekend would be rounded out with another top fifteen in the sprint race, and a crash in the final race of the weekend. Mackenzie noted having to push much harder than he was having to want to, citing the lack of track time as an achilles heel this weekend.

Jonathan Rea made his Honda Racing return this weekend, donning the HRC colours for the first time since 2014. However the first weekend back aboard a Honda wasn’t quite the fairy tale that Rea would have been dreaming of. A nineteenth in Saturday’s opening race was followed by an eighteenth in the sprint race. The third and final race of the weekend would be by far the best of the weekend, with a twelfth place finish and four crucial points.

2023 British Superbike Champion Tommy Bridewell’s made his debut as a full-time World Superbike rider at Portimao. A strong Friday looked promising for the #46, however Bridewell’s first race with the Superbike Advocates team was brought to a premature end with a crash in the opening race. Sunday’s action would yield a twentieth in the sprint race, before a very strong thirteenth place in the final race of the weekend.

The opening round of the World WCR championship offered mixed fortunes for the British pairing, Chloe Jones and Katie Hand. It was a difficult opening weekend of the season for 2025’s bronze medalist, Chloe Jones. Jones, now riding for the Crescent Yamaha team, finished the first race of the year in fourteenth before a double long lap in race two meant that fifteenth was as good as it got for the #15.

Katie Hand made her full-time debut in the World WCR championship this weekend. Despite a crash in the first race, it was a meeting of good progress for Hand, who finished just outside of the points in eighteenth place.

The opening race of the Sportbike World Championship proved to be a bruising one for both Fenton Seabright and Harrisson Dessoy. Both Peter Hickman Performance Triumph riders were caught out by dropped fluid on the circuit in race one. Seabright would unfortunately be ruled out for the rest of the weekend after dislocating his shoulder.

The second race of the weekend saw an excellent performance for Harrison Dessoy, who fought his way through from twenty-second on the grid to cross the line in twelfth place – scoring points on his debut outting in the World Championship.

The second round of the World Supersport championship proved to be a difficult one for PTR Triumph’s Tom Booth-Amos. Quickly into the weekend, it was clear that the Triumph package was lacking something compared to the Yamaha and Ducati run teams.