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00:30Good morning and welcome to Sacchito Estoril here on the far west coast of Europe for the final day of round 11 for the 2025 Motel FIM Superbike World Championship.
00:45The first of two rapid-fire rounds in as many weeks on the Iberian Peninsula saw top-rack Razgat Lioglu take a remarkable 20th win of the year in yesterday's opener as he had to fend off the Ducati duo of Niccolò Bulliga and a resurgent Alvaro Bautista in the early stages.
01:00They've got Arden Steve English here at Trackside for the Sunday morning warm-up session. Steve, plenty of talking points right across the grid this weekend.
01:08Yeah, certainly when you look at the big talking points, it's always going to be about Bulliga and top-rack for the win in the World Championship this season, but we had a great scrap yesterday for the final step of the podium and it really sets up nicely for the Super Bowl race in a couple hours' time.
01:20I think one of the big things for the teams and the riders right now is just looking at the track temperature, looking at what tyres they'll need to use in the Super Bowl race.
01:27We've got 22 degrees track temperature this morning. Realistically, most teams needed over 30 degrees to be able to use the softer qualifying tyre in the Super Bowl race.
01:37That's one of the things that they'll be considering right now at this stage. What do you do if you have to use that harder tyre?
01:42Yes, indeed. A very different tyre allocation from Corelli here this weekend to the previous round we saw in that Motorland Aragon.
01:48They had a much harder set of compounds available. Softer tyres here at Estoril. The temperature is rising all the time.
01:56That temperature, as we say, of just over 22 degrees at the moment, that is going to rise very rapidly.
02:02And the other thing to consider here being on the Atlantic coast here on the Portuguese Riviera is the wind strength and speed as well.
02:09It has been very blustery at the start of the weekend. A little calmer yesterday, but there's still a good following wind down the long pit straight here at the Estoril circuit.
02:19As Toprak Raskat-Lioglu raced to victory in yesterday's race, finishing just under two seconds clear of Niccolò Bulliga.
02:26But in the early stages especially, he certainly didn't have things all his own way.
02:29Yeah, for Toprak, what we were able to see in yesterday's race was those early laps. He opened up a couple of seconds of an advantage.
02:34In the mid-phase of the race, Bulliga came back at him and ultimately, Bulliga struggled with front grip.
02:40Toprak struggled a little bit with rear grip and they ended up at the same pace as each other at the end and Toprak was able to take that race victory.
02:46Indeed, grip was the key word yesterday for all of the front runners with Bulliga eventually losing out.
02:54With some three laps to go, he made a mistake coming out of the Parabolica and got onto the curves, which dropped him back.
03:00And Toprak able to pull away for, as you say, his 20th win of the season, getting back to winning ways after those two defeats to Bulliga in the last round at Motoland-Aragon.
03:09It's a little slower off the start for Toprak yesterday.
03:12It was Alvaro Bautista who led the first lap. His first lap led in certainly a very long time, having started from the front row for the first time in over a year.
03:21Yeah, first time he's led since Assen at the beginning of the season at round three.
03:25So for him, it is one of those situations where trying to find that bit of form, but a lot of it comes from being able to qualify well in the Super Bowl race.
03:31Those early laps in both stages of yesterday's race, before the red flag and after the red flag, he was able to be a lot more combative and a little bit more aggressive than we've seen in opening laps over the last couple of years from him.
03:44But ultimately, he struggled in that first half of the race.
03:46And that's where, once again, the big difficulty for Bautista is.
03:52Nicolo Bulliga, meanwhile, looking a lot more relaxed, a bit more motivated this weekend than we saw.
03:57He was clearly frustrated in the early part of the weekend at Aragon until he got those two breakthrough victories, ending the long 13 race winning run of Toprak in the Super Bowl race there and then in race two as well.
04:11Frustration certainly not returning so far this weekend.
04:15He's more focused. They both said, both riders have said they're not thinking of the championship.
04:19They're just focusing on each race as it comes.
04:23And Toprak trying to do the hat trick here this weekend is his main focus.
04:26Alvaro Bautista, meanwhile, great to see him back on front running form after a slightly lean spell over the middle of the season.
04:33As we say, on the front row for the first time in over a year in Super Bowl yesterday and then leading the first lap of the race for the first time since that Dutch round.
04:43Meanwhile, behind them, we had a red flag on the first lap.
04:47Steve has already mentioned when Axel Bassani lost the front of his bimota on the first corner and there was a bit of a pile up as a result.
04:56But everyone was eventually able to race on.
04:59Andrea Locatelli heads out of his pit box to get underway with this 10 minute warm up session.
05:04And he's now back in as he's Bautista for the battle for bronze.
05:08It's the third place in the championship with Danilo Petrucci absent this weekend with that hand injury.
05:13Yeah, and it's a strange weekend whenever you lose Petrucci.
05:16Sam Lowe's out as well.
05:17We didn't see Rinaldi racing yesterday.
05:19He's going to take part in the warm up this morning.
05:21He's suffered pretty bad gastroenteritis and had to sit out yesterday's action.
05:25Did well to qualify yesterday.
05:27And then he should be OK for today.
05:30Jonathan Ray, meanwhile, was back on top four on the circuit where he claimed that sixth title in 2020.
05:38He was pursuing Bautista over the first half of yesterday's race.
05:42But as we say, a slightly depleted field here this weekend.
05:45Danilo Petrucci suffering a broken bone in his right hand in a bizarre accident while training in the gym a few days ago.
05:52And we also lost Sam Lowe's who rode well in free practice on Friday and on Saturday morning.
05:58But then pulled out with a reoccurrence of an old rib injury, unfortunately, the Mark VDS man.
06:03So he's absent this weekend.
06:05But we are hoping to see Michael Ruben Rinaldi back on the Moto X racing machine.
06:10He is out there.
06:11We've seen him at the top of the picture there.
06:14So the battle for third place in the championship is very much back on with Bautista and Locatelli
06:19trying to catch up to our third place man in the points, Danilo Petrucci, the top independent rider this year.
06:26Axel Bassani, meanwhile, we mentioned on the Vimoto, been showing some good pace over the early part of this weekend.
06:31And he was very frustrated to get caught up with that pileup on the first quarter of race one yesterday.
06:37Yeah, and the big instant into turn one was one of those tricky ones that can happen around Estoril.
06:42This is a place where everyone's trying to make up those places right from the start.
06:45And ultimately for some of the riders that were caught out in it.
06:49And you can see for Rinaldi there, just taking these.
06:51We'll see if he just comes straight back into the pits or if he stays out to do a couple of laps now as well,
06:56just to get himself up to speed.
06:58He'll have been dosed up and ready after his illness yesterday.
07:02One man who showed some good pace early on in Super Bowl is Garrett Gerloff on the Kawasaki.
07:07Always likes his lips to Estoril.
07:08And it's over the line, of course, time's not important in this just 10-minute warm-up session.
07:14They're all getting ready, getting the bikes set up for the Super Bowl session later on.
07:19Yeah, for Gerloff as the lone Kawasaki, it's always been a struggle.
07:22And throughout the course of this season, we've seen it where that one lap pace hasn't quite been there.
07:26If you look at a couple of rounds in Most and also in Donington, he qualified well.
07:31But here yesterday, able to come away with a top-10 finish and score decent points.
07:34And ultimately for Gerloff and for the Pachetti-Kawasaki team, that's what the target has to be.
07:40Pensioning impressive pace yesterday.
07:42And also a top-10 for Xavi Vierge on the Honda P7 after starting an impressive P5 from Super Bowl.
07:50So good to see the Honda in good form.
07:52Of course, Xavi Vierge will be moving to Yamaha next season.
07:56The big boots to fill with Jonathan Ray announcing his retirement.
08:01It's the Ray chasing top-rack.
08:02We've got Lioglu here.
08:04And when we were speaking to Yamaha earlier in the weekend,
08:06the pressure off Ray slightly now that he's made the announcement of his retirement.
08:10He's certainly improved his pace this weekend.
08:12I think that what we've seen over the last few rounds are tracks that suit Ray's style.
08:15And he's been able to qualify well.
08:17Ultimately, if you qualify well, you give yourself those opportunities to be a little bit further up the field.
08:21Ray's qualified inside the top 10, three of the last four Super Bowl sessions.
08:25And it gives you that little bit, sorry, four of the last five, sorry.
08:28And it means that it gives you that good opportunity to be able to land some blows at the start of the races.
08:32I think that the one thing for Ray is you can still see that he's aggressive on the bike.
08:37He's tense to try and get those good results.
08:40And it's inevitable because he's still chasing that high as he comes towards the end of his World SBK career.
08:45But the Super Bowl race is an opportunity for Ray to be back on the podium.
08:50Certainly is going to be a big party in Jerez next weekend as Jonathan Ray celebrates the final round of his regular racing career in World Superbikes.
08:59Alvaro Bautista is the man he was battling with in race one.
09:03Yes, they were fighting for the final podium spot at one stage until Ray dropped back down into P6 behind Locatelli's teammate and Alex Lowe's on the promoter coming through after a slightly slower start in race one yesterday.
09:18And Bautista currently the quickest on times in this warm-up session.
09:23Niccolò Bulliga has yet to set a flying lap.
09:26He's coming round now just getting the feel for the circuit in these slightly cooler temperatures.
09:32The track temperature has actually cooled down very slightly since the start of this session.
09:36It will certainly warm up later on for the Super Bowl race.
09:39That's coming up at 11am.
09:41For the riders to watch out there include the two Bimotas.
09:47Other news stories breaking this week, of course.
09:50So we've heard since the last round that Miguel Oliveira will be joining the BMW squad for next season as teammate to Danilo Petrucci.
09:59Honda, it's all changed as well.
10:00Jake Dixon and Sonkhat Chantra joining in place of Ikele Quona and Xavi Vierke.
10:07And also the news this weekend that Brian Vickers will not be continuing with the Motocorsa Ducati team.
10:13So the grid certainly taking shape very rapidly for next season.
10:17Yeah, it is shaping up at this stage.
10:19And it's nice to be able to see that confirmation for Honda and for BMW as well with Oliveira.
10:23Good to be able to see riders like that coming into the championship.
10:26I think that for Miguel in particular, he had never really shown much ambition to come to World Superbikes.
10:30Wanted to stay in MotoGP.
10:32And then over the course of the summer, he's able to see that there is the opportunity to come here, be on a factory bike and still be able to go race him.
10:39And it's an important one for a rider like him moving into the next phase of his career.
10:44That at the end of November, when he jumps onto that BMW for the first time, that he's going to be able to find the feeling that he needs to have with it.
10:50And build up towards Phillip Island.
10:52Good thing is, starting the season in Phillip Island is probably a good thing for someone like Oliveira, someone like Dixon as well.
10:58And even Chantra on the Honda, because I think Chantra is going to surprise a few people with some of his results next year compared to what the expectation is.
11:06And obviously, after such a disappointing year in MotoGP, expectations are very low.
11:10But I think he'll have some good weekends.
11:12Dixon will be the team leader for them.
11:14But I think it's good to be able to see some Grand Prix riders coming across.
11:17Yes, indeed.
11:18And with expectations a little less, shall we say, coming in, it's been less pressure going into the opening rounds of next season.
11:25It's really going to be very unpredictable indeed in 2026.
11:29So many huge sea changes in the championship with Toprak Raskat-Lionglu moving in the opposite direction to MotoGP.
11:37No Jonathan Ray.
11:39Of course, Alvaro Batista moving away from the factory Ducati squad onto the Barney machine in place of Petrucci.
11:45Yeah, ultimately, the big thing is going to be who's going to step up to take the fight to Bulaga.
11:49And we know that Bulaga is going to have the pressure on his shoulders to win that championship.
11:53But we have to wait and see with the new Ducati if anyone is able to make that big step that they have to find.
11:58Someone like Iker Lekwona is going to be the interesting one because he'll move from the Honda to the Aruba Ducati squad.
12:04And the expectation is that he needs to be able to win races.
12:07He needs to be able to show something all the way through the season.
12:10Yeah, it's good to see Iker Lekwona back out on the Honda this weekend,
12:14returning for those arm injuries sustained at Balaton Park in Hungary a couple of rounds ago.
12:20West France and Aragon back here this weekend.
12:24And also another rider we're missing this weekend, unfortunately, is Dominic Eggetter for the GRT Yamaha squad.
12:30Again, they're suffering a hand injury and a training accident in the run to this event.
12:35So Remy Gardner running alone.
12:36It certainly is a slightly depleted feel here this weekend.
12:39Thankfully, not depleted too much further by that pilot we had at the start of race one yesterday.
12:46It was Michael van der Mark who took the brunt of that one, had to change his bike going into the restart after the red flag.
12:52Axel Bassani caught up as well.
12:54Perhaps in Safoglu was also involved.
12:57He was later out, had to start from the back on the restart.
13:01Certainly all happening here at Esteril yesterday.
13:05Two minutes to go then in this Sunday morning warm-up session.
13:09And quickest at the moment it is Toprak Razgat Dioglu, as you see Ikele Cuona looking to improve.
13:16Gary Montella out there as well.
13:17The only Barney Ducati out there this weekend with the redrawal of Danilo Petrucci.
13:24Razgat Dioglu ahead of the two Ducatis at the moment.
13:27Jonathan Ray and Alex Lowe is next in at the Times.
13:31Axel Bassani improves into fourth place.
13:34I think he'll be channeling his frustrations from yesterday into putting in some strong performances here today, Bassani, on the second of the Muertes.
13:42Ultimately for Bassani, the big challenge is going to be to try and perform a little bit better than yesterday.
13:48Obviously, qualified on the third row of the grid needs to come away with top ten finishes.
13:51Yesterday we were able to see from him he finished in 11th, but he was lucky because he was the one that had that crash at turn one that kind of triggered everything else.
13:59And the red flag let him have the opportunity to get back and get out there again and be able to score some points.
14:05So he needs to make sure that he's able to come away with something.
14:08Michael Van Der Mark back on the second of the BMWs after his spilt start of race on yesterday.
14:15He managed to take the restart and got into the points.
14:18But a disappointing year for Mikey as he gets ready to move away from the superbike paddock.
14:22Yeah, speaking to BMW last night, they said that Mikey went out and the transponder failed.
14:26So the bike didn't know where it was out on the track.
14:28And obviously the electronics, they're very dependent on knowing where you are.
14:32And he really struggled with that as a result.
14:34So tough race one for him, but he'll have the opportunity in the superpole race and race two to try and make amends.
14:41Nicolo Bulliger puts in his quickest lap of this session.
14:44The chequer flag will be out in just a few seconds.
14:46Bulliger goes second to Glasgow, which has become a familiar pattern here this weekend.
14:52And second to him in race one yesterday.
14:55The title can be won this weekend, but chances, I would say, fairly remote.
14:59I think we're going all the way to Horef.
15:00Well, at the end of the day, it's just going to come down to if Bulliger has a problem.
15:04And if Bulliger has a problem, championship in all likelihood will be won today.
15:08If not, we're going to Horef and the final round of the year next weekend.
15:12Coming to the end of this warm-up session then.
15:16The chequer flag is now up.
15:18Let's see if anybody is going to put in a quick clap at the end of the session.
15:21Andrea Locatelli looking to improve.
15:23He does to P8 in the time.
15:25At times, not really relevant in this session.
15:28It's all about shaking down the machine, getting the setup correct for the superpole race.
15:34A little later on, the temperatures will have risen a little.
15:37The decision will now be what's tyres to use, as we said at the beginning of the session,
15:42before that short superpole race to set the grid for race two coming up later this afternoon.
15:49Toprak Raskat-Bioglu will be at top of the session once again,
15:53when Bulliger has not yet taken the chequered flag.
15:56I don't think we'll see him come through and improve here.
15:58Toprak has backed off.
15:59Toprak Raskat-Bioglu will be one of the last riders to complete a flying lap here in this morning session.
16:06Estoril goes through turns 9 and 10 at the top of the circuit.
16:11The more twisty section of this Estoril circuit, which is a largely flowing layout in its early laps.
16:16And then you've got the turns 9 and 10 at the top,
16:20and then this very long parabolica section, famous for Niccolò Bulliger's move on toprak Raskat-Bioglu last year
16:26to produce the closest ever finish in world superbikes in our superpole race last year,
16:31winning by just 3,000th of a second on the line ahead of toprak.
16:35Jonathan Ray crosses the line.
16:37I think that's everybody in now at the end of this session,
16:40so it will be Raskat-Bioglu at the top of the times ahead of Bulliger and Bautista.
16:45Yeah, Bulliger improved his time right at the end of the session,
16:48but still 4 tenths of a second off toprak in this session,
16:51and certainly when we get into the superpole race,
16:53it's going to come down to that tyre choice,
16:55and last year Bulliger used the softer tyre, toprak used the harder tyre,
16:59and that was a big deciding factor in how the race was won,
17:02but for Bulliger, you'd imagine he'll go out on that tyre.
17:05Bautista's out on it right now, but track temperature a little bit low,
17:09so everyone not really able to get that good indication of it just yet.
17:13Last couple of practice starts then before the riders head back into the pits,
17:19and the discussions will begin with their crew chiefs
17:22as to what they're going to decide for a couple of hours' time,
17:26bringing the classification very shortly on our morning session.
17:32Discussions going on there in the practice starts area.
17:36Yesterday toprak wasn't too impressed with Jonathan Ray's teammate Andrea Locatelli
17:41and how forceful Locke was at one stage during the race,
17:44and it was interesting to see that because we don't tend to see toprak
17:47get frustrated about things like that,
17:49but yesterday he was pretty clear about it,
17:53so we'll see how that plays out during the course of the superpole race in particular.
17:56It certainly will, yes.
17:59An interesting day coming up here in Estoril.
18:02It is second match point, effectively, on the championship.
18:06We saw toprak do what he needed to do yesterday,
18:08but Niccolò Bulliger did not he needed as well,
18:11taking that second place,
18:12and it was closing in in the middle portion of that race yesterday,
18:16only to slip back with three laps to go.
18:19So that concludes our morning warm-up session here on this Sunday morning
18:22here at the Ekmer Estoril round.
18:24Toprak Razz got the old glue quickest with a 1.35-033 ahead of the two Ducatis.
18:31Alex Lowe's top of the promoters first,
18:33Yamaha Jonathan Ray in seventh place.
18:36We'll see Michael Rubin-Rinaldi back out after his illness yesterday
18:40as well completing session in P18.
18:52Six laps completed by Toprak.
18:57Around eight-tenths of a second off his lap record pace
19:00from the superpole session in Yest.
19:07Five laps for Bulliger,
19:08improving right at the end of the session
19:10as he took the chequered flag.
19:11Altista set his quickie slap
19:20rather earlier in the session
19:22on his second run round Estoril.
19:30Well, that wraps up this morning's warm-up session
19:32and the riders will now get ready for the superpole race
19:34coming up at 11am.
19:41We'll see you next time.
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