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From 19 to 22 May at the legendary circuit of Estoril in Portugal, the 3rd event of the Superbike World Championship took place under a beautiful sun but also wind.
The team did 2 days of tests only in the rain during the winter, too bad because it is the dry settings that are required for this 3rd weekend of races, the work of the tests will not be used!

Free Practice 1: Good start to the weekend for the Gil Motor Sport driver who achieved his best time at 1’948 seconds from the American driver Gerloff who was the fastest of the Yamaha of this FP1, 1’744 from the 2021 World Champion Razgatlioglu, 1’144 from the official Yamaha Locatelli and 0.181 faster than the 4th official Yamaha driver the Japanese Nozane.

Free Practice 2: Our driver Christophe Ponsson slightly improved his time compared to the FP1, however he lost to the World Champion Razgatlioglu as well as the Japanese Nozane who beat him by 0’532 seconds, but he wins over the American Gerloff at 1’220 and the official Yamaha Locatelli at 1’100 seconds.

Free Practice 3: The work of this 3rd session did not improve the times, on the contrary since Christophe even rode 8 tenth slower than the FP2, it’s a shame because it’s not the best way to prepare for the qualifying session that will follow.
+ 2’798 seconds for the Turkish driver Razgatlioglu, + 1’829 for the Italian driver Locatelli, + 1’101 for the American Gerloff and + 0’962 for the Japanese rider Nozane.

Superpole Qualification: Luckily the driver Christophe Ponsson and his private Yamaha set an excellent time with the race tyres, because as since the beginning of the season, the two qualifying tyres available do not allow the Gil Motor Sport driver to achieve a time worthy of a “qualifying tire”!… This is very unfortunate because apart from the 2021 World Champion Razgatlioglu and his factory Yamaha which puts Christophe at + 2’338 seconds, vis à vis the other official Yamaha drivers, Christophe Ponsson and his private team do not have to blush at the difference of + 1’577 of Locatelli and + 0’795 of Nozane, then Gerloff having unfortunately injured himself in this qualifying session, will not be able to participate in the races. The Gil Motor Sport driver will therefore start from 18th place on the grid.

Race 1: In this 2022 Superbike season we could have renamed the circuit of Estoril, «Estoril Ducati», because its track favors the engine power of its Ducati!
The reigning World Champion Razgatlioglu and his factory Yamaha also paid the price since in the last corner of the last lap he is in the lead and sees him overtake and literally drop on the last 100 meters by the Spanish rider’s powerful Ducati Bautista, so much so that the 2021 World Champion declared after the race that when he was overtaken by Bautista of this kind “when he passed me, I felt like I was on a 600cc!” In the end, the factory rider Ducati Bautista won this first race of the weekend ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and the English rider Réa.
As for the Gil Motor Sport driver, who bravely finished the race despite the ten dead points during the event, a technical problem already encountered
last season on the same circuit and then by Razgatlioglu and Gerloff in 2020, it’s a shame that this is recurring and why especially on this circuit? Christophe posted his best time, 2’137 seconds behind Toprak Razgatlioglu, 1’557 from Locatelli and 0’332 from Japan’s Nozane.
Another finding of this race, the 5 Ducati at the start are in the first 13 Superbike in the final classification of the race !

Superpole Race: This famous race of 10 laps of unfair Sunday between the competitors even before its departure, because it rewards only the first 9! Not very sporty for all the private teams and those drivers who make the same investments as the official structures and whose points are almost impossible in view of the 15 to 16 Superbikes officially supported by the manufacturers (JCP-team Owner). The driver Christophe Ponsson and his private Yamaha will finish this race in an honorable 12th place.

Race 2: For this last race of the Portuguese weekend, the winner is the English rider with his factory Kawasaki Jonathan Rea who leads Spaniard Alvaro Bautista and his Ducati just ahead of 2021 World Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu and his Yamaha. The whole race in points, The Gil Motor Sport driver could not do anything against the impressive rise of the Ducati supersonic of the Bernardi driver who chipped 3 laps before the finish the point of the 15th place to Christophe Ponsson who will finish 16th and his best time will be 1’845 seconds behind the Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, 1’480 of the 2020 Supersport Locatelli World Champion and 0’798 of the official Yamaha Japanese rider Nozane.

Conclusion of the Portuguese weekend:
Frankly not rewarded to the height of his fight the driver Gil Motor Sport, because he fought really well, but complicated to fight loyally against Ducati who has each of the 21 laps in the straight line puts you 10 km/h in the sight. On the road 10 km/h may not seem like much but at this level of competition 10 km/h it’s huge!
Next race weekend in Italy at the Misano Adriatico circuit from 09 to 12 June 2022.