Forget that the Algarve allegedly gets 240 days of sunshine every year or similar stories, certainly the owners of the new Portimao circuit hope you do.

This new circuit looks like it could become a favourite for riders and fans, and certainly it is one of the only circuits where you can get a true idea of how the circuit flows from the comfort of your armchair.

But I have to feel sorry for the owners of the circuit on this their first weekend as a WSB circuit because the heavens have opened and the race track is awash with the wet stuff, not too mention red mud mixed in.

In qualifying the smart riders got out early when there seemed to be a let up in the rain and although times were no where near the dry times achieved on Friday Bayliss managed to show us (as if we didn’t know) why he is World Champion qualifying on pole a good 2.5 seconds ahead of Cal Crutchlow in second place.

As you might have guessed there is a smattering of British wildcards including Crutchlow, Leon Haslem and Jonathan Rea. All of these managed to get in respectable times from the off and qualified second, sixth and third, respectively, whilst leaving top riders such as Nori Haga languishing in 10th.

The remaining part of the qualifying session was wet with a capital W. There was lots of standing water on the track and it must have been pretty dismal riding around in it. The riders who got out early on wisely stayed put in their garages and watched those poor souls still out on track battling for position on the third and fourth rows of the grid.

With Rea on his superbike Sofuoglu is on his ride in World Supersport and has managed to take pole, hopefully a good omen for his return to the paddock next year.

If we get a dry race it will certainly be an interesting one with all those wildcards qualifying so well.

Look out for Troy Bayliss on his Australian liveried Ducati and leathers, nice one.

Final qualifying results were:
1, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 1’58.548
2, Cal Crutchlow, Honda, GBR, 2’1.023
3, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 2’2.027
4, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 2’2.107
5, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 2’2.779
6, Leon Haslam, Honda, GBR, 2’2.861
7, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 2’3.014
8, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 2’3.023
9, Regis Laconi, Kawasaki, FRA, 2’3.494
10, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 2’4.420
11, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 2’4.496
12, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 2’5.250
13, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 2’5.408
14, Ayrton Badovini, Kawasaki, ITA, 2’6.354
15, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 2’6.830
16, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 2’10.953