Bautista leads Toprak Razgatlioglu by 47 points with just two rounds of the 2023 WorldS♓BK season to go.

The Ducati rider has been in a league of hisꩵ own for large parts of this season, winninꦅg 21 races compared to Razgatlioglu’s six victories.

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But ♚the reigning world champion has faltered recently, with Imola, Magny-Cours and Aragon seeing him make critical errors in💖 all three rounds.

Bautista still managed to win races on 🉐all three of those weekends, and thus stop Razgatlioglu fro🍌m taking huge chunks out of his points lead.

However, Bautista has still seen his advantage slip from 98 to 4🅰7 points over the last four rounds.

With 62 points available in one round, Bautista needs to o📖utsco⛄re Razgatlioglu by 15 points or more in Portimao. 

The Spaniard will be the hot favourite in the two feature-length races, given ♏his consistent speed and ability to make the♉ rear tyre last for a full race distance.

It’s an area where Bautista has been untouchable in 2023,☂ although teammate Michael Ruben Rin𒊎aldi managed to deploy that tactic in Race 1 at Aragon, as he closed down Jonathan Rea and Razgatlioglu before going on to win after Bautista crashed from the lead early on. 

If Razgatlioglu remains within 61 poiꦰnts of Bautista at the end of Race 2 on Sunday, then the title fight will go do🍒wn to the season-finale at Jerez.

Other storyl🔯ines to watch out for is regarding third in the standings as Rea, who is 53 points ahead of Andrea Locatelli could secꦫure P3 in the championship if he outscores the Italian by nine points or more. 

In terms of the top independent ri൩der standings, Axel Bassani is well clear of Danilo Petr൲ucci although the former MotoGP rider can mathematically catch the Motocorsa Ducati rider.