The Portuguese pilot Miguel Oliveira secured fourth place on the starting grid for the first race of the Superbike World Championship held at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, in Portimão, after recording his best run of the weekend in 1,39,068 minutes. The result puts the Brazilian newcomer in this championship in a competitive position for opening race of the Algarve journey, scheduled for 3:30 pm today.
The ‘pole position’ was achieved by the Italian Nicolò Bulega (Ducati), who set a new circuit record with a time of 1.38.495 minutessurpassing the previous mark of 1,39.081 held by Turkish Toprak Razgatlıoğlu since 2025. Spaniard Iker Lecuona (Ducati) secured the second best time, 0.142 seconds behind the leader, while Italian Yari Montella (Ducati) closed the top-3, 0.438 seconds behind. Oliveira finished 0.573 seconds behind the reference time, joining a group of four riders who ran below the previous record for the Algarve circuit.
Despite the fastest lap, Bulega admitted that there is still room for progress in the race, citing having made small mistakes during qualifying, but showing confidence in the competitiveness demonstrated.
The day started with some setbacks for the Portuguese driver, who suffered a fall without physical consequences during the third free practice sessionfinishing in third position.
In his debut in the Superbike World Championship after 14 seasons in the Speed World Championship, the BMW rider managed to significantly improve the record achieved in qualifying for the MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix in 2025, reducing almost a second from the time then achieved, despite now competing with series-derived motorcycles. The performance reinforces expectations for the races in the Portuguese round, in the initial phase of a championship made up of 12 stages.
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