Ducati's Alvaro Bautista's early dominant form seems a distant memory now with his main adversary Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea taking nine of the last twelve races and Bautista's appearances on the podium being few and far between.
With a championship lead of 91 points heading into this weekend's French Round, Jonathan Rea looks increasingly likely to be adding a fifth world title to his collection.
Whilst still a mathematical possibility (if Bautista were to win every remaining race, and Rea finishing no higher than fourth in all but one, and fifth in that one), realistically only a serious injury would see Bautista clawing back enough points to take the title, but there is all to play for further down the field with just over a race-win's worth of points covering third to sixth places.
In case you missed the races from Portugal, summarised below are the race results including top five finishers.
Race One
Pos |
Rider |
Bike |
Time |
1 |
Jonathan Rea (GBR) |
Kawasaki ZX-10RR |
34'19.341 |
2 |
Chaz Davies (GBR) |
Ducati Panigale V4R |
+3.891 |
3 |
Michael Van Der Mark (NED) |
Yamaha YZF-R1 |
+6.168 |
4 |
Alvaro Bautista (SPA) |
Ducati Panigale V4R |
+8.564 |
5 |
Leon Haslam (GBR) |
Kawasaki ZX-10RR |
+8.877 |
Superpole Race
Pos |
Rider |
Bike |
Time |
1 |
Jonathan Rea (GBR) |
Kawasaki ZX-10RR |
17'00.806 |
2 |
Alvaro Bautista (SPA) |
Ducati Panigale V4R |
+2.103 |
3 |
Alex Lowes (GBR) |
Yamaha YZF-R1 |
+2.384 |
4 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR) |
Kawasaki ZX-10RR |
+4.053 |
5 |
Leon Haslam |
Kawasaki ZX-10RR |
+4.318 |
Race Two
Pos |
Rider |
Bike |
Time |
1 |
Alvaro Bautista (SPA) |
Ducati Panigale V4R |
34'18.017 |
2 |
Jonathan Rea (GBR) |
Kawasaki ZX-10RR |
+0.111 |
3 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR) |
Kawasaki ZX-10RR |
+4.457 |
4 |
Alex Lowes (GBR) |
Yamaha YZF-R1 |
+8.119 |
5 |
Leon Haslam |
Kawasaki ZX-10RR |
+8.185 |
Pos |
Rider |
Bike |
Time |
1 |
Federico Caricasulo (ITA) |
Yamaha RZF-R6 |
23'37.682 |
2 |
Randy Krummenacher (SWI) |
Yamaha RZF-R6 |
+0.333 |
3 |
Lucas Mahias (FRA) |
Kawasaki ZX-6R |
+0.645 |
4 |
Jules Cluzel (FRA) |
Yamaha RZF-R6 |
+2.605 |
5 |
Ayrton Badovini (ITA) |
Kawasaki ZX-6R |
+3.125 |
Pos |
Rider |
Bike |
Time |
1 |
Scott Deroue (NED) |
Kawasaki Ninja 400 |
21'24.195 |
2 |
Manuel Gonzalez (SPA) |
Kawasaki Ninja 400 |
+0.153 |
3 |
Ana Carrasco (SPA) |
Kawasaki Ninja 400 |
+2.580 |
4 |
Marc Garcia (SPA) |
Kawasaki Ninja 400 |
+2.897 |
5 |
Andy Verdoia (FRA) |
Yamaha YZF-R3 |
+3.366 |
Here's how the Championship tables stand after the Portuguese Round.
POS |
RIDER |
BIKE |
PTS |
NEXT |
LEADER |
1 |
Jonathan Rea (GBR) |
Kawasaki |
490 |
- |
- |
2 |
Alvaro Bautista (SPA) |
Ducati |
399 |
91 |
91 |
3 |
Alex Lowes (GBR) |
Yamaha |
249 |
150 |
241 |
4 |
Michael Van Der Mark (NED) |
Yamaha |
244 |
5 |
246 |
5 |
Leon Haslam (GBR) |
Kawasaki |
229 |
15 |
261 |
6 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR) |
Kawasaki |
223 |
6 |
267 |
7 |
Chaz Davies (GBR) |
Ducati |
204 |
19 |
286 |
8 |
Tom Sykes (GBR) |
BMW |
183 |
21 |
307 |
9 |
Marco Melandri (ITA) |
Yamaha |
153 |
30 |
337 |
10 |
Sandro Cortese (GER) |
Yamaha |
116 |
37 |
374 |
POS |
RIDER |
BIKE |
PTS |
NEXT |
LEADER |
1 |
Randy Krummenacher (SWI) |
Yamaha |
193 |
- |
- |
2 |
Federico Caricasulo (ITA) |
Yamaha |
183 |
10 |
10 |
3 |
Jules Cluzel (FRA) |
Yamaha |
145 |
38 |
48 |
4 |
Lucas Mahias (FRA) |
Kawasaki |
98 |
47 |
95 |
5 |
Hikari Okubo (JPN) |
Kawasaki |
82 |
16 |
111 |
6 |
Thomas Grandinger (AUT) |
Yamaha |
70 |
12 |
123 |
7 |
Raffaele De Rosa (ITA) |
MV Agusta |
69 |
1 |
124 |
8 |
Corentin Perolari (FRA) |
Yamaha |
59 |
10 |
134 |
9 |
Isaac Vinales (SPA) |
Yamaha |
45 |
14 |
148 |
10 |
Peter Sebestyen (HUN) |
Honda |
43 |
2 |
150 |
POS |
RIDER |
BIKE |
PTS |
NEXT |
LEADER |
1 |
Manuel Gonzales (SPA) |
Kawasaki |
128 |
- |
- |
2 |
Scott Deroue (NED) |
Kawasaki |
90 |
38 |
38 |
3 |
Ana Carrasco (SPA) |
Kawasaki |
81 |
9 |
47 |
4 |
Andy Verdoia (FRA) |
Yamaha |
76 |
5 |
52 |
5 |
Marc Garcia (SPA) |
Kawasaki |
63 |
13 |
65 |
6 |
Victor Steeman (NED) |
KTM |
62 |
1 |
66 |
7 |
Jan-Ole Jahnig (GER) |
KTM |
61 |
1 |
67 |
8 |
Hugo De Cancellis (FRA) |
Yamaha |
47 |
14 |
81 |
9 |
Galang Hendra Pratam (IND) |
Yamaha |
44 |
3 |
84 |
10 |
Nick Kalinin (EST) |
Kawasaki |
41 |
3 |
87 |
The season continues this weekend at the Pirelli French Round at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours, Central France, a 4.41KM track, comprising nine right-hand and eight left-hand corners and a 250 metre straight.
TV coverage is split between Eurosport 1 for live action, and Eurosport 2 and free-to-air ITV4 for highlights, as follows:
Friday 27th September 2019 |
||
Free Practice 1 – LIVE |
13:55 – 14:55 |
Eurosport 1 |
Free Practice 2 – LIVE |
14:55 – 15:55 |
Eurosport 1 |
FP1 and FP2 Highlights |
17:35 – 19:00 |
Eurosport 2 |
Saturday 28th September 2019 |
||
Qualifying and Race 1 - LIVE |
09:30 – 14:15 |
Eurosport 1 |
Highlights |
17:00 – 18:30 21:00 – 22:00 |
Eurosport 2 |
Sunday 29th September 2019 |
||
Raceday - LIVE |
09:30 – 15:15 |
Eurosport 1 |
Highlights |
17:30 – 19:00 21:00 – 22:45 |
Eurosport 2 |
Tuesday 1st October 2019 |
||
Highlights |
20:00 – 21:00 |
ITV 4 |
Photo credits:
www.photopsp.com/FIM/WSBK