Kyle Smith Tops World Supersport Free Practice Two In Thailand

Kyle Smith Tops World Supersport Free Practice Two In Thailand

© 2015, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIM Supersport World Championship

Chang International Circuit, Thailand

March 20, 2015

Free Practice Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):

1. Kyle SMITH, UK (Honda CBR600RR), 1:38.490

2. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:38.757

3. Jules CLUZEL, France (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:38.796

4. Ratthapark WILAIROT, Thailand (Honda CBR600RR), 1:38.825

5. PJ JACOBSEN, USA (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:38.830

6. Gino REA, UK (Honda CBR600RR), 1:39.008

7. Lucas MAHIAS, France (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:39.214

8. Riccardo RUSSO, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), 1:39.530

9. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:39.544

10. Ratthapong WILAIROT, Thailand (Honda CBR600RR), 1:39.578

11. Roberto ROLFO, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), 1:39.618

12. Martin CARDENAS, Colombia (Honda CBR600RR), 1:39.733

13. Lorenzo ZANETTI, Italy (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:39.751

14. Dominic SCHMITTER, Switzerland (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:39.769

15. Decha KRAISART, Thailand (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:39.924

16. Thitipong WAROKORN, Thailand (Honda CBR600RR), 1:39.981

17. Marco FACCANI, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:40.184

18. Fabio MENGHI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:40.539, crash

19. Alessandro NOCCO, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), 1:40.573

20. Glenn SCOTT, Australia (Honda CBR600RR), 1:40.826

21. Christian GAMARINO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:41.165

22. Kieran CLARKE, UK (Honda CBR600RR), 1:41.175

23. Chalermpol POLAMAI, Thailand (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:41.400

24. Kevin WAHR, Germany (Honda CBR600RR), 1:41.599

More, from a press release issued by Dorna WSBK Press Office:

Kyle Smith tops timesheets in first day of Thai WSS action

After an extended first free practice session in which American PJ Jacobsen (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) was fastest, this afternoon’s 45 minute FP2 saw Kyle Smith (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) emerge on top of the combined classification courtesy of a 1.38.490s lap time.

With ambient temperatures touching almost 40 degrees Celsius the times this afternoon were not as fast as many had expected, but nevertheless, almost all of the riders improved on their personal best times with Smith the best of them all. The British rider overhauled the FP1 best that was set by Jacobsen to head the combined times, and will go into tomorrow’s third free practice session with an advantage of 0.102s over the American, who remained in second place thanks to the lap-time set earlier in the day. New father Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) moved into 3rd position overall in the final 5 minutes despite a number of off track excursions.

Current Championship leader Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) endured a similar fate as in the opening round, the Frenchman suffering a technical problem on his second lap of today’s first session. Ever jovial, he joked that it had not affected the race weekend too much in Phillip Island, before posting the 4th fastest time this afternoon to move ahead of Thai rider Ratthapark Wilairot (CORE Motorsport Thailand) and Gino Rea (CIA Landlords Insurance Honda) who were 5th and 6th.

Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres), Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), Martin Cardenas (CIA Landlords Insurance Honda) and Marco Faccani (San Carlo Puccetti Racing) completed the top ten.

Ratthapong Wilairot (A.P Honda Racing Thailand) missed the morning session but regrouped to finish a respectable 13th overall ahead of team mate and former Moto2 regular Thitipong Warokorn who was 17th on his WSS debut.

Chalermpol Polomai (Yamaha Thailand Racing Team) and Fabio Menghi (VFT Racing) were the only two fallers in FP1 and FP2 respectively. Both were unhurt.

More, from a press release issued by CIA Landlords Insurance Honda:

Gino in touch at Chang

Fri, 20 Mar 2015

CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA’S Gino Rea is sixth, with Martin Cardenas ninth, in a strong start to the second round of the World Supersport Championship at the new Chang International circuit in Thailand.

Gino said: “The circuit is fast and not really difficult to learn. I was a bit frustrated after the first session as I messed up some laps and didn’t get the bike setting right. In the second session we made changes but that didn’t go the way we wanted. We did the best we could with what we had in the bike and I was able to improve. The gap to the front is small and I am confident once we make the right set up change we can challenge at the top of the timesheets.”

Martin set his fastest time in the morning session when he finished seventh. He dropped to ninth in the afternoon but is showing consistent times that give him a good platform to build from.

Riccardo Russo ended the day 11th after making a big improvement between sessions. Kieran Clarke took more than a second from his morning lap time and is 23rd.

There is another practice session followed by qualification tomorrow before the race starts at 1430 local time on Sunday 22nd March.

CIA Landlords Insurance Honda Team Manager Simon Buckmaster, said: “Gino didn’t get the best out of his last tyre and is looking at some gearing changes for tomorrow to improve.

“Martin is going well and he will benefit from the gearing changes we are considering as well.

“Ricky struggled in the morning but got it together in the afternoon. His time has pulled right in and he is in good shape.

“Kieran has improved but has more work to do to get close to the group in front. He wants to qualify in the top 20 and then look for points in the race.”

Practice Times

1: K Smith 1:38.490

2: P Jacobsen +0.102

3: K Sofuoglu +0.267

4: J Cluzel +0.306

5: R Wilairot +0.335

6: G REA, CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA +0.518

9: M CARDENAS, CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA +1.020

11: R RUSSO, CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA +1.040

23: K CLARKE, CIA LANDLORDS INSURANCE HONDA +2.685

More, from a press release issued by Pata Honda:

Smith fastest on opening Supersport day in Thailand

Pata Honda’s Kyle Smith set the fastest combined time following today’s two opening free practice sessions for round two of the 2015 World Supersport championship at Buriram in Thailand.

With an extended Free Practice 1 to get accustomed to the new 4.554km facility 400km north-east of Bangkok, Smith finished second fastest this morning on his Pata Honda CBR600RR before upping the pace in the afternoon session.

With ambient temperatures of 36 C and a track temperature approaching 60°C, the 23-year-old British rider went 0.4s faster than his opening effort and finished 0.3s ahead of second placed Patrick Jacobsen.

The World Supersport riders have another practice session tomorrow morning before the afternoon’s qualifying session which will determine the final grid positions for Sunday’s 18-lap second-round race.

Kyle Smith – P1, 1m38.490s

It’s been a really good day and I’m very happy to be fastest after the first day of practice at a new track. It’s been really hot again today but I’m handling it OK and after the first practice this morning we made a couple of small changes to the bike for the afternoon session. It made a big improvement and the lap times seemed to come, so I hope we can keep it up for the rest of the weekend. It’s a track where the harder you push the harder it becomes to get the lap time and there were a couple of times I came round and, although I was really pushing, I was going faster. There are one or two technical sections and it’ll be interesting to see how qualifying goes because sometimes the lap doesn’t come from pushing. I really like turn 10 on the back section of the track and had so me fun geting a bit sideways there at the end of the session when the tyre was finished, but it’s all good!

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

From Kyle’s first few laps on the track he was immediately fast which simply confirmed that, after his impressive start in Phillip Island, he can learn new tracks quickly. This afternoon, when track conditions were worse, we made a couple of really minor changes but it worked out really well, together with some better tyres. Kyle was feeling comfortable and got into a good rhythm to put in some really fast laps that nobody could really match, so it’s been a good start for him and his team.

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