Good start into the first race day with a P9 in Superpole
The first race day of the Acerbis Portuguese Round of the FIM MOTUL Superbike world championship started off well for Markus Reiterberger. After he finished in eleventh position at the third free practice in the morning, a ninth place at the Superpole session followed. The feeling with the bike and its set up seemed to be alright and Reiti was looking forward to continue the upswing with the BMW S 1000 RR. Unfortunately he was not able to improve during the first of the two races, that are taking place this weekend on the Algarve International Circuit in Portimao, Portugal and finished it in twelfth place.
The target to finish inside the Top Ten is also the clear goal for the second race tomorrow. Reiterberger hopes that his side of the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team will find something for the Warm up on Sunday morning to improve the bike further and to give him more stability with the front of the BMW S 1000 RR.
Markus Reiterberger #28, P12: “The Superpole was really great. With the SC-X tyres I managed to reach the top 5 for a time before ending up in seventh before everyone had put on their qualifying tyres. I was then able to record a fast second lap after the first one with the qualifying tyres. That was a perfect lap. I had expected to be on the second row but it was ninth place in the end. I was just two and a half tenths of a second off fourth place. The start went well enough but I hit the first two gears too early and that meant that the other riders were able to out-accelerate me. Then I rode my race and struggled a bit with the problems that are still holding us back somewhat. I finished twelfth, which was just shy of my aim of a top 10 position, but we will see if we can find something to help me do a bit better tomorrow.”