If you have been following the latest WorldSBK pre-season test at Portimao, then you might have noticed that the likes of Toprak Razgatlioglu, Jonathan Rea and Sam Lowes don’t have the Portuguese venue to themselves at the moment.

Indeed, a host of familiar names from the world of MotoGP have also made the trip to the Algarve to turn in some laps on their track day specification (but otherwise stock) sportsbikes alongside the WorldSBK and WorldSSP regulars.

Chief among them is Valentino Rossi, who in the spirit of team bonding, has joined members of his VR46 Academy - including MotoGP World Champion Pecco Bagnaia, Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio di Giannantonio - in tackling the undulating venue for a bit of match fitness training ahead of MotoGP pre-season testing in a couple of weeks.

Among them the 11 on track there were eight Ducatis, two Yamahas - one of Rossi - and one Honda for new Repsol HRC recruit Luca Marini

Naturally, there is very little to be taken away from these laps since the track time - which is being hosted by Ducati and is open to anyone - is primarily to shake off cobwebs and have a bit of fun at the same time.

That said, of the 11 GP regulars that were there, nine of them did have transponders on their machines, so… who went quickest of all?

For a gauge of where the likes of Bagnaia et al. are on their stock-spec sportbikes compared with the proper full-fat WorldSBK machines, Nicolo Bulega paced day one on his Aruba.it Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R with a 1m 39.913s.

incidentally, there were more familiar faces on track than showing on the timesheets with Marc Marquez and Alex Marquez also being invited to Portugal to put their company motorcycles through their paces.

A chance for Marquez to rag his new Ducati Panigale V4 R - which replaces the Honda CBR1000RR-R in his daily garage - the six-time MotoGP World Champion, who rides for Gresini Racing in MotoGP this year, didn't lap with a transponder fitted, sadly.