It is true that the opening round of any racing series rarely provides any clear indication for the rest of the season. But the second in this year’s WorldSBK series at Estoril certainly does.

Jonathan Rea’s two victories on a circuit which is not his favourite made his points lead look good but, more importantly, sent out a message to his rivals and their teams - if you want to take me on, you’ve got to do better. And it has been received…

Trudging dejectedly out of the paddock, having just been further hit by a six second penalty for jumping the start, Scott Redding was not making any excuses having been pressured by Rea into pushing too hard and suffering the consequences. But he had won the previous day and finished third in the sprint so he still believes he can win the championship - and so he should.

Sitting in the pit box being consoled by his Yamaha team boss Paul Denning, Turkish firebrand Toprak Razgatlioglu couldn’t quite get over suffering a penalty of two long laps for jumping the start. But jump it he certainly did although difficult to say whether he or Redding went first - his was certainly the most obvious.

But podium finishes are not good enough for someone who believes, like Redding, he could, and should, take the title away from the greatest of all time.

His reputation as the ‘great braker’ has not been lost on Rea and it was more than interesting that Rea took him on in the sprint race and, back wheel skipping the tarmac from the 200mph home straight, levelled with him on the inside, kept it tight and took the lead as if to say: “I can do this too you know!”

Redding and Razgatlioglu are undoubtedly the greatest threats to Rea and Kawasaki. The Ducati’s were some five mph quicker than anything else but tyre selection seems more critical. Yamaha have definitely upped their game since last year and if the new kid on the block Garrett Gerloff can stop getting into trouble he is definitely a threat.

What of the other factory teams? It is obviously good to see BMW, supported by the enthusiasm of the company boss, having a real go. In top speed they now match others except Ducati but Michael van der Mark and Tom Sykes should be doing better so it is clear that more development, or testing, is required.

Honda, having been adopted by HRC to make their presence in World Superbikes a real factory effort to be taken seriously, are simply just not in the game. It is not top speed, they have plenty of that, but as James Whitham observed last week they may have made just too many changes, including personnel, to get things right in limited testing time. It surely can’t be all down to Bautista that he crashed four times at Estoril.

And what of this legendary Portuguese circuit, situated alongside an equally famous golf course on the outskirts of Lisbon, one of Europe’s great cities. Only recently has it come back onto the schedule of world championship events but in many ways still looks like it did many years ago, i.e. not much development other than an impressive grandstand, and still looking quite tatty in many areas.

The circuit which could certainly be described as ‘undulating’ but with a long straight - Ducati’s clocking circa 225mph - followed by a series of tight corners, has been resurfaced and is one of the best. And a great addition to the calendar.

Previously state owned and one time host to both F1 and MotoGP it is said to be up for sale which, perhaps, is why former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was seen having a wander around a couple of weeks ago. But whatever his reasons for the visit and whatever enthusiasm he might have had is likely to have been dampened due to the complete confusion over ownership of the land between Cascais City Council, a family who thought they had inherited it from their mother and a consortium of private investors. All this including claims of illegal occupation or development which date back to the 1970s.

Of course, with virtually no spectators and a paddock resembling a ghost town, it was far from what might have been or what might be. But it is a great setting among forest-lined hills and its location gives it great potential. Circuits like Estoril and Portimao are a credit to Portugal. Let’s hope getting there gets easier and cheaper.