Portimão. BMW Motorrad Motorsport reflects on an extremely
successful penultimate season event of the 2023 FIM Superbike World
Championship (WorldSBK) at Portimão, Portugal. Garrett Gerloff (USA)
from the Bonovo action BMW Racing Team produced outstanding results.
He finished in fourth place as the top rider from an independent
team in both main races and missed the podium in the second race by
just one second. Michael van der Mark (NED) from the ROKiT BMW
Motorrad WorldSBK Team made a strong comeback with several
impressive seventh-place finishes after his injury break.
In the Superpole qualifying session on Saturday morning, van der Mark
was the best BMW rider, finishing seventh. His teammate Scott Redding
(GBR) secured the eleventh position, with Gerloff right beside him in
twelfth. Loris Baz (FRA / Bonovo action BMW Racing Team) concluded
qualifying in sixteenth place. Since an additional engine has been in
use on his motorcycle since the round at MotorLand Aragón (ESP), he
had to start both main Portimão races from the pit lane.
Due to a penalty for a competitor, van der Mark, Redding, and Gerloff
each moved up one position on the start grid for race one on Saturday
afternoon. The race once again showcased the potential of the BMW M
1000 RR. Van der Mark was running in the front group after a good
start and was fifth before spending a long time in fourth place during
the second half of the race. Meanwhile, Gerloff worked his way
impressively up from eleventh place towards the front and jumped from
sixth to fourth place in the final stages. This equalled Gerloff’s
best season result, and he once again claimed first place in the
independent class. Van der Mark only lost a few positions towards the
end and secured an important strong result, finishing seventh.
Unfortunately, Redding struggled to find a good feeling with the bike
during the race and crossed the finish line in 15th place. Baz fought
his way up several positions after starting from the pit lane and
finished in 18th place.
In the Superpole race on Sunday morning, van der Mark confirmed his
seventh place with another consistent performance. Gerloff once again
charged forward from 12th place and was already in the top eight at
the halfway point. However, he was pushed back in a duel and initially
dropped to the 11th position. The American rider launched another
comeback and fought his way up to eighth place, improving his start
position for the second main race in the afternoon. Baz finished in
12th place from the 16th starting position, with Redding following
closely behind him in 13th place, just hundredths of a second apart.
In the concluding second main race, Gerloff once again demonstrated
his racing strength. By the 17th lap, he had worked his way up to
fourth place and was setting his sights on the podium. His gap to
third place narrowed to just a few tenths of a second at times. In the
end, he narrowly missed out, finishing once again as the top
Independent rider in fourth place, but his gap to the podium was only
one second, and he was less than three seconds behind the leader. Van
der Mark concluded the weekend with an 11th place. Redding had bad
luck, as he was pushed off the track in turn three and ultimately
finished in 14th position. Baz, in his attempt to make a comeback from
the back, pushed too hard and crashed.
The season finale of WorldSBK 2023 will take place from October 27th
to 29th at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.
Reactions to the Portimão round.
Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “In
general, our overall summary of the weekend is very positive. Let’s
start with the challenging points. It was a tough weekend for Scott.
He couldn’t find his rhythm. We tried a lot but we have not been able
to move him up the field. Loris faced a difficult starting position as
he had to start from the pit lane in the main races due to an extra
engine we had to incur for him. The penalty is particularly harsh here
compared to other tracks because the distance to the pit lane exit is
quite long. Unfortunately, he crashed in the second main race. Now,
onto the very positive aspects. It was extremely gratifying to see
that Michael, just as he did at Aragón, came into great form in the
first race here. He had a lot of confidence from the first practice
session on and genuinely enjoyed riding. Kudos to Mickey for being
able to put two serious injuries behind him mentally. He knows that he
still needs to work on his physical condition, but this weekend was
extremely positive. Last but not least, Garrett who had already shown
an incredibly strong performance in the recent races, and bringing
home two fourth-place finishes in the main races here is fantastic. He
was not far from the podium in the end. Certainly, the top two riders
held each other up a bit, but we were less than three seconds behind
the winner. This fills me with great confidence for the season finale
and also for the winter, to then attack as a team right from the
beginning next year.”
Garrett Gerloff, Bonovo action BMW Racing Team (SP: 12 / R01:
4 / SP Race: 8 / R02: 4): “After qualifying I didn’t think
that two fourth-places would be possible at all but I guess that’s
something I need to learn about myself, not to count myself out. Race
two was the end of a really great weekend. I wasn’t exactly fighting
for the podium, but I was close. Until the last lap, I thought, maybe
I can catch Rinaldi. In the end, I am just super happy about how the
bike feels and how the whole team is working together. I can’t ask for
much more. I am really happy! We have only one round left in the year,
but I would really love to end on a high note. It was very cool and we
are making progress.”
Michael van der Mark, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 7
/ R01: 7 / SP Race: 7 / R02: 11): “I am really happy with
the weekend overall. From Friday on, I straight away felt very good on
the bike. We keep working on the bike but we just made small changes.
I am really happy with this weekend’s results. This morning P7 in the
Superpole race, I was quite happy with it. I saw that I just miss some
race rhythm but anyway, I was really satisfied. The field is so close
and you must have a good start position. So it was P7 on the grid for
race two. I had a really good start. Unfortunately in turn one, I was
a bit unlucky and then I couldn’t gain the places back. And honestly I
struggled a bit, I just didn’t feel as good as I felt before. But it’s
another race under our belt, we scored some good points and most of
all, I enjoyed riding this weekend very much.”
Scott Redding, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 11 / R01:
15 / SP Race: 13 / R02: 14): “It has been a very
disappointing weekend. I struggled a lot to find my rhythm and a
feeling for the bike. That made it impossible to attack. The whole
team has been working hard over the entire weekend and we tried a lot
of different things in the sessions but we haven’t been able to find
the right solution. We now have a few weeks off, time for all of us to
recharge after the double-header, and then we aim to come back much
stronger at the season finale.”
Loris Baz, Bonovo action BMW Racing Team (SP: 16 / R01: 18 /
SP Race: 12 / R02: DNF): “We knew that the Superpole race
was going to be the only funny one, let’s say. I was trying hard to
get in the points, but it was not possible, but I had fun battling
with the other riders in the group, so that was good. In race two, I
had to start form the pitlane again. Luckily for me there was some
trouble with the other guys in the first corner, so I lost less time
than yesterday and I was not far behind Scott and Johnny. We were
coming back and I was just trying to push really hard in order to get
some points. There was nothing to lose for me anymore. I was pushing
really hard and just over-pushed the limit in turn one. We were trying
the SC2 front hard for today and maybe that was not helping over those
bumps in turn one. It was a pretty big one, but I am ok. We will see.
There is some time to recover and then we head to the last round.”
