Race Update from Portimao

This was a weekend of changes as Team (Danish Road Racing Team) owner, technician, and former Team Denmark coach Chris Jensen joined the team to set up the Aprilia RSV4 and coach Michael during the weekend.

When Michael and the team arrived at the Portimão circuit, they completely changed the settings of the bike from last year.

On top of this, Michael had to fit the new Michelin tires on the "new" bike for the first practice.

A lot was different, and the team worked intensely to make the final adjustments during the free practices on Friday.

Already in Saturday’s qualifying practice, Michael beat his personal best time by more than a second and qualified 15th for Sunday’s races.

The weather forecast for Sunday predicted short showers of rain throughout the day, and in the warm-up, Michael had to fit the wet tires for the first time in four years.

Both races were run on a dry track.

In race one, Michael had a rocket start on his Aprilia RSV4 and was in 7th-8th position out of the first corners. In the first laps, he had to give up some positions, ending up in a group fighting for 12th-16th place.

By the end of the race, Michael finished 14th but gained a position due to another rider's exclusion, moving him to 13th place.

In race two, Michael and his team decided to make some changes to the bike to compensate for missing acceleration and improve tire performance consistency.

Unfortunately, Michael didn’t benefit from the changes and finished in 18th place after a series of riding mistakes and confusion.

Overall, the weekend was a great success. Even though Michael and the team had to put in many kilometers with the new tires, they managed to do a week’s worth of testing in just two hours, improving the stability and handling of the bike.

Next race in the FIM CEV European Superbike Championship is in Barcelona on June 19-21.