FIM Supersport World Championship Portimao, Portugal June 9, 2013 Race Results (all on Pireli tires): 1. Sam LOWES, UK (Yamaha YZF-R6), 20 laps, 35:32.882 2. Fabien FORET, France (Kawasaki ZX-6R), -0.380 second 3. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (Kawasaki ZX-6R), -0.502 4. Michael VD MARK, Netherland (Honda CBR600RR), -1.322 seconds 5. Sheridan MORAIS, South Africa (Honda CBR600RR), -9.537 6. Jack KENNEDY, Ireland (Honda CBR600RR), -11.772 7. Andrea ANTONELLI, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), -13.535 8. Luca SCASSA, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), -13.953 9. Raffaele DE ROSA, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), -14.728 10. Christian IDDON, UK (MV Agusta F3 675), -18.756 11. Vladimir LEONOV, Russia (Yamaha YZF-R6), -18.909 12. Massimo ROCCOLI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6), -32.012 13. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (Suzuki GSX-R600), -32.039 14. Lorenzo ZANETTI, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), -32.118 15. Luca MARCONI, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), -33.152 16. David LINORTNER, Austria (Honda CBR600RR), -39.207 17. Matt DAVIES, Australia (Honda CBR600RR), -45.202 18. Vladimir IVANOV, Russia (Kawasaki ZX-6R), -45.238 19. Nacho CALERO PEREZ, Spain (Honda CBR600RR), -56.229 20. Miguel PRAIA, Portugal (Honda CBR600RR), -59.022 World Championship Point Standings (after 6 of 14 races): 1. Lowes, 120 points 2. TIE, Sofuoglu/Foret, 81 4. VD Mark, 62 5. Zanetti, 55 6. Scassa, 53 7. Antonelli, 46 8. Kennedy, 44 9. Roberto Rolfo, 38 10. Florian Marino, 31 More, from a press release issued by PTR Honda: PTR HONDA’S Sheridan Morais continues to improve his results race by race, taking a season best fifth at Parkalgar in Portugal during the sixth round of the World Supersport Championship. Qualifying third, Sheridan finished less than 10-seconds behind the winner after 20 hard laps, showing he is close to podium and race challenging pace. Sheridan said: “I tried hard today and while fifth is not what we wanted, it is a step in the right direction and we can get our heads down and keep improving. For some reason we seemed to struggle for rear traction in the race, which we hadn’t done in qualifying and warm up. We have proved we can challenge at the front and the results will come as we continue to work hard as a team.” Luca Marconi outperformed his qualifying position to take a point with 15th. He led home his PTR teammates David Linortner and Matt Davies in 16th and 17th respectively. Nacho Calero in 19th scored a decent result. The next round of the Championship is on Sunday 30th June, at Imola in Italy. Simon Buckmaster PTR Honda Team Manager: “A season best fifth for Sheridan is going in the right direction. We always look to find more from the bike at all times. We need to work hard and so does Sheridan. “We have tried hard with Luca all weekend and he is back in the points. His next race is at home and we want him back in the top 10. “David made a mistake and just dropped out of the points to finish 16th. Matt got a decent start, made some mistakes in the opening laps and fought back. It equals his best result and he continues to improve. A points scoring finish is just round the corner for him. “Nacho got the top 20 result we predicted and now we will work with him to make that a consistent result. With all PTR racers now showing promise and growing with experience, the team is looking forward to getting back on track at Imola and making more improvements.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Second and Third For Foret And Sofuoglu After a Thrilling Portimao Supersport Race WSS, Portimao, Portugal, 9 June 2013 Kawasaki Mahi Racing Team India competitors Fabien Foret and Kenan Sofuoglu could each have won the 20-lap Portimao race but Fabien came out second and Kenan third and they are now tied on 81 points. The team-mates had worked out a plan to make sure they could both stay in contention with pole man Sam Lowes and it worked well for a time, with each applying pressure, taking the lead and then controlling the pace. A three-rider fight became a four rider one when Michael van Der Mark arrived with a few laps to go but although they saw off the challenge from the young Dutch rider neither Fabien in second nor Kenan in third could hold onto the ultimate pace of Lowes on the last lap. Fabien was second in the race, his third podium of 2013, while Kenan went third and is now equal second on points with Foret, with Lowes 39 points ahead of them both after six rounds. Kenan set the fastest lap of the race, a 1’45.730 on lap 12. Luca Scassa (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) posted an eighth place despite finding some technical issues, as he ran out one place behind Andrea Antonelli (Team Goeleven Kawasaki) who was seventh in the race and the championship. Scassa remains sixth overall and is closer to fifth place than when he started the day. David Salom (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) tried to complete the race but with problems in his injured right hand and some small issues with his machine set-up he finally pulled in to retire from the race. Vladimir Ivanov (Kawasaki DMC-Lorenzini Team) was 18th and out of the points while Kevin Coghlan (Kawasaki DMC-Lorenzini Team) eventually crashed and had to retire. Fabien Foret: “I got a podium and after two difficult rounds I will take it with pleasure. It is always nice to be on the box. To be honest we had a plan together with Kenan and during the race I could see that it may work out OK as we were all together. I think van Der Mark came along quite late in the race and disturbed our plan quite a bit and I was also surprised to see him there. When you are suddenly four guys together you have more things to think about. I am quite upset with the little mistake I made in the last lap, as I could have had the race win but maybe next time in Imola I will.” Kenan Sofuoglu: “I think today Sam deserved to win the race all weekend he was the fastest but also in the race. I realise that we have an issue with not good enough grip from the rear of the bike and it is spinning. We had a similar thing at Assen, Donington and now again here. We have to find out what to do because after Australia we did not do any testing and we have to improve it in some area. This is not an excuse because today we are all fighting hard and anyone of four of us could have won the race. We will keep working s we are Kawasaki and Kawasaki is fully behind me to improve the bike even more and hopefully in Imola we will be better.” More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing: Van der Mark impresses in Portugal Michael van der Mark finished fourth in today’s sixth round World Supersport championship race at the 4.592km Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal, getting his season back on track following two difficult races. Starting from sixth place on the grid, the 20-year-old Dutch World Supersport rookie consolidated his starting position in the early laps but, with consistent lap times, he began to reduce the gap to the eventual winner, Sam Lowes and rivals Fabien Foret and Kenan Sofuoglu. Just four weeks after breaking his foot at Monza in Italy, van der Mark caught the leading trio in the closing stages of the 20-lap race, at one point holding second place, before eventually having to settle for fourth, just half a second off the podium. His Pata Honda team-mate, Lorenzo Zanetti, started from 24th place on the grid following a big crash during qualifying yesterday afternoon. The 26-year-old Italian battled hard, taking ten places to finish in 14th position, but left Portugal frustrated that he could not maintain the form showed in the previous two races. Michael van der Mark – 4th I think we have to be really happy with this result today. The start wasn’t that great and I lost a few places early on. I finally passed some guys and managed to settle into a really consistent pace. I couldn’t go any faster so just tried to do the same lap times all through the race. I could see the group in front and I knew that at some point they would start to fight for first position. I was hoping that, when that started, they would lose some time and they did. I kept doing the same lap times and made it up to the group. I passed them a few times but one time I went a little bit wide and Kenan [Sofuoglu] missed a gear and the others passed me again. I kept pushing but in the last lap I lost the front a bit, but after two disappointments at Monza and Donington, we are really happy with this weekend. Lorenzo Zanetti – 14th It was not a good weekend for me. I didn’t have a good feeling all the weekend and then the big crash in qualifying meant that I had to start from a long way back on the grid. I passed a few people but I couldn’t make the gap to the next group and could not really find a rhythm. I am disappointed with the result, of course, but Imola is one of my favourite circuits so I look forward to starting again there. Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator Lorenzo has had quite a difficult weekend. In the race he went from 24th to 14th, which was good, but he still didn’t have the pace to go with the front runners. For him it’s a weekend to forget, but I’m sure he will be back on form in Imola. Michael had a really good race with a very steady, consistent pace. Eventually he caught the front runners and he was even second at one time. He had a good battle and finished fourth but, coming from that far behind and closing that gap to the front, it feels like a podium. He did a really good job, which shows once again the potential that he has, so congratulations to him and his crew.