The 2025 season of World Superbikes is fully underway after the spectacular opening round at Phillip Island, Australia. The round down under is always unique due to its challenging nature and ultimately location, effectively levelling out the field in terms of time spent riding the track. The stalwarts of World championship racing with their years of experience still ultimately have the upper hand, however with the track notably being regarded as one where a rider can make up the biggest difference as oppose to being on the best overall package it has always managed to produce exciting close racing, along with shining a light on a riders true riding ability.
Throughout the years this has resulted in many class ‘rookies’ quickly and firmly making their presence known within the paddock and this year was no exception with the United Kingdom’s own Ryan Vickers.
It looked as if, from the round, Ducati had made steps forward during the off-season with both Alvaro Bautista being closer to the front than in 2024 and with Nicolo Bulega carrying his consistency through from last season all the way to leaving the opening round top of every session and the winner of every race.
Scott Redding wasted no time in returning to a consistent top 5 challenger aboard his MGM Bonovo Ducati as he took a fifth and two Fourths with Petrucci and Iannones also placing podium finishes making the Panigale V4R the bike to beat down under.
Ryan Vickers aboard his Motocorsa Ducati showed pace throughout Friday practice, ultimately qualifying P16 and just 1.468 seconds of pole, itself set by Nicola Bulega. Having had no previous experience at the track and inclement weather hindering pre-season testing in Europe, the expectations would have been simply, to go out and learn the bike and track.
However, the Norfolk racer set about securing his first ever World Superbike race points on his debut with a 13th and two 15th race positions across the weekend, bringing home 4 points in what can only be described as a successful World Series debut.
The paddock shifted back to Europe for the Portuguese round at the amusingly nicknamed ‘Rollercoaster’ circuit, Portimao.
Considered the first ‘true’ round of the series due to the previously mentioned quirks of a Phillip Island opener, Portimao is a well ridden location for the majority of riders both for racing and testing and as a result offers clearer insight as to the current level of both rider and team.
With Vickers only having experienced ‘track days’ and an essentially washed out test aboard his Panigale, he and the team continued their methodical and measured approach to each new challenge resulting the continuation of Vickers floating in and around point scoring position.
A particularly violent and untimely high side during Saturday mornings free practice added extra pressures to his imminent Superpole session where he finished P17 with a 1.41.227 best lap and 2.1446 seconds adrift of Toprak’s new lap record setting 1.39.081.
The previous qualifying lap record being held by Jonathan Rea since 2022 with a 1.39.610 which was also bested by Nicola Bulega in P2, Danilo Petrucci in P3 and finally Andrea Locatelli in P4 hinting that 2025 may well be another year of broken lap records.
Just missing out on another point scoring finish in race 1 finishing P16 marked further progress for Vickers in terms of consistency. Saturday marked the end of a hard days riding, and with some overnight adjustments and rest, Vickers ended the Superpole race P19 with lap times much closer to his overall qualifying time with a best of 1.41.695
With the final race of the weekend unfortunately being split into essentially two sprint races, due to a damaged air fence stopping play after Jason O’Halloran’s turn 1 crash (rider ok), Vickers managed to finally finish P14, securing a further 2 championship points and buoyed by his overall reduction in lap times and race pace consistency with a race best of 1.41.559.
Speaking to Superbike News following the Portimao round Vickers had this to say:
“The transition to the World Superbike Championship is a difficult thing to explain, the electronics are very complex, it takes a lot to understand them and you quickly realise how important they are. This is before you even start to think about getting the chassis to suit you.
With every circuit you also require different strategies. At Portimao I was able to understand the electronics a lot more by actually reducing a lot of the controls as I think it’s really important for me to actually get to know the v4 character and what the bike actually needs before I let me electronics deal with it.
We have a great relationship in the team and we have learnt a lot, even since Phillip Island. We have improved the process in which we work together and I couldn’t be happier. I’m really motivated for this challenge, it’s not going to be quick but we can definitely arrive at the top in time.”
With Toprak and Bulega clearly a level above, battling each other throughout the weekends races with hard but fair racing, it was to be Toprak’s weekend overall at Portimao with 3 wins and new lap records for both qualifying and racing.
Bulega will no doubt be buoyed by his ability to stay with Toprak at arguably his most dominant circuit and from a spectators point of view long may the battles continue.
The Superbike paddock now moves along to Assen ready for Round 3 on 11th April.
Written by: Kerrie McFadden
Photography by: Tom Crawford KSC Photography Services
