Pirelli & C S p A : is ready to face Portimão for the eleventh round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship

After having successfully completed the MOTUL Spanish Round at Jerez de la Frontera, Pirelli will be busy next weekend at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, where the eleventh round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship will take place from 1^st to 3^rd October.

The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve was designed by architect Ricardo Pina and was inaugurated exactly ten years ago. This track is 4592 metres long, with 9 right-handers and six left-hand corners and a configuration with a maximum gradient of 57 metres, a long turn radii that goes from 23 metres to a maximum of 207 metres, and a finishing straight which has a total length of 835 metres.

The Portuguese circuit remains one of the circuits that best brings out the capacity of the tyre to operate in extremely different conditions because of its altitude changes and demanding blind entry curves. Specifically, the rear tyre must go from low to extremely high temperatures, the front must be able to come into the turns mentioned above quickly and precisely. Unlike the rear, which undergoes few but intense mechanical/thermal stresses, the front is always engaged in slow turns with a quick entry and small curvature radii (tight corner) which forces the rider to brake sharply, sometimes downhill.

The most challenging part for the tyres is the last turn which is 350 metres long and takes 6.5 seconds to navigate, and due to the wide turning radius (about 150 metres), the bike is in constant acceleration and goes from 150 to 250 kph at a lean angle of about 50°. So there is a remarkable increase in temperature on the side of the tyre affected by the lean, particularly for the rear tyre which must withstand the high temperature while simultaneously ensuring strong lateral force and allowing the bike to accelerate. Corners 5, 8, 11, 13, and 14 have on the contrary a very tight radius (about 30 metres), which forces the rider to brake to an extremely low speed. Halfway through the turn the bike needs the rear tyre, which is very cold, to provide strong longitudinal acceleration up to 1G at a lean angle of 50°. The tyres are particularly cold, especially coming into the left handers (numbers 5 and 13).

The solutions for the WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes:

In the WorldSBK class, riders will have available both the standard and several development solutions used last weekend in Jerez de la Frontera.

There are three slick options for the front, two development and one standard solution. On top of the standard SC1, Pirelli will make available to the riders the development solution SC1 A0674, which features the same compound of the standard SC1 solution with an adjustment in the structure to increase confidence in corner entry and maximum lean, and the development solution A0721, which riders were able to try in Assen, Navarra, Barcelona and Jerez.

As for the rear options, the standard soft SC0 is joined by the development SC0 solution A0415, presented in Jerez. This solution combines the standard SC0 compound and the SCX A0557 structure to improve stability and support during acceleration. In Portimão there will be also the development SCX solution A0557,made available to the riders exclusively for the qualifying session and the Tissot Superpole race.

The last rear option is the qualifying tyre that will allow riders to make a lap during the Superpole in search of the absolute best time to position themselves on the starting grid.

In the WorldSSP category, on the other hand, there will be four dry solutions available to riders, three front and one rear option. For the front, there will be the standard SC1, the standard SC2 compound, which allows more wear resistance than the first option, and the development SC1 solution A0460. The latter features an SC1 compound and a new structure that should improve the feedback at maximum lean angle and give more support in corner entry. For the rear, WorldSSP riders will have available the soft SC0 standard solution.

As always, in case of bad weather, riders of all classes will have rain and intermediate tyres available.

More details on the race solutions for WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes are available in the technical sheets attached to this press release.

The 2020 Pirelli statistics for Portimão:

• Total number of tyres brought by Pirelli: 3573
• Number of solutions (including dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class: 5 front and 7 rear
• Number of tyres available for each WorldSBK rider: 62, 27 front and 35 rear
• WorldSBK Best Lap Awards both won by: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in 1'42.075 (Race 1, lap 4) and in 1'42.819 (Race 2, lap 3)
• Fastest race speed reached by the DIABLO Superbike tyres in the WorldSBK class: 317,8 km/h, by Toprak Razgatlioglu (PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team Yamaha YZF R1) in Race 1 on lap 4
• Temperature in Race 1: air 30° C, asphalt 49° C
• Temperature in Race 2: air 32° C, asphalt 52° C
• Number of solutions for the WorldSSP class (including dry, intermediate and wet): 4 front and 4 rear
• Number of tyres available for each WorldSSP rider: 43,21 front and 22 rear
• WorldSBSP Best Lap Awards both won by: Andrea Locatelli (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team / Yamaha YZF R6) in 1'46.251 (Race 1, lap 6) and in 1'45.698 (Race 2, lap 3)
• Fastest race speed reached by the DIABLO Superbike tyres in the WorldSSP class: 282,6 km/h, by DannyWebb (WRP Wepol Racing / Yamaha YZF R6) in Race 1 on lap 3