Hannes Soomer (Kallio Racing, Yamaha) started the third round of the Supersport World Championship with P8 in the Free Practices in Portimao, Portugal today.

According to Soomer, he attempted to imitate the racing situation today and he rode with used tires in both FPs. "I had my fastest lap with a rear tire that had made it through one race, considering that the difference with the top guys was not that considerable," he said.

Despite a small crash, Andrea Locatelli (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team) rode the fastest lap, of which Soomer was 0.825 seconds slower.

"Compared to the Friday of the Jerez round, today was much more logical for me. The bike is much closer to what I am familiar with from previous training and tests,” he added. Hopefully, the bike will also behave the same with fresh tires in tomorrow's Free Practice, Superpole and Race 1.

Fortunately, Portugal is not as hot as it was in Spain — the air temperature was 27 degrees today and occasionally there was even a refreshing breeze.

The first race of the Supersport class will take place on Saturday at 17:15 Estonian time, the second on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. In the opening round of the World Championships in Australia, Soomer reached the best result of his career so far, finishing 6th.

After the first two rounds, Soomer holds 7th position at the World Championships with 24 points.

Photo: GeeBee images.