Sofuoglu Tops World Supersport FP2 In France

Sofuoglu Tops World Supersport FP2 In France

© 2016, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIM Supersport World Championship

Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, France

September 30, 2016

Free Practice Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):

1. Kenan SOFUOGLU, Turkey (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:41.507

2. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:41.889

3. Illia MIKHALCHIK, Ukraine (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:41.916

4. Ayrton BADOVINI, Italy (Honda CBR600RR), 1:41.923

5. Axel BASSANI, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:41.948

6. Niki TUULI, Finland (Yamaha YZF-R6), 1:42.044

7. Jules CLUZEL, France (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:42.200

8. Christian GAMARINO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:42.286

9. Alex BALDOLINI, Italy (MV Agusta F3 675), 1:42.299

10. Alessandro ZACCONE, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-6R), 1:42.370, crash

11. PJ JACOBSEN, USA (Honda CBR600RR), 1:42.508

38. Braeden ORTT, Canada (Hon CBR600RR), 1:45.951

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

WorldSSP: Soguoglu Unbeatable on Friday

Kawasaki 1-2 leading into Tissot-Superpole 2 shootout

Reigning World Champion Kenan Sofuoglu is all business heading into the Fassi French Round where he could be crowned World Supersport Champion once again. The timesheets were painted green by the end of Friday, as Kawasaki Puccetti Racing’s Kenan Sofuoglu and Randy Krummenacher finished with the two fastest lap times of the day, both setting times in the 1’41 bracket.

Friday’s final session at Magny-Cours went much the same way as the morning practice, where the Turkish rider dominated for the entire session. FIM Europe Supersport Cup rider Illia Mikhalchyk (DS Junior Team) gave an impressive performance in the last minutes of FP2, to secure third place on his Kawasaki.

By the time WorldSSP took to the track for the afternoon session, the clouds had rolled in and the temperature had dropped, but track conditions stayed dry. The session was red flagged momentarily as riders Ondrej Jezek (Team GOELEVEN) and ESS rider Alessandro Zaccone (San Carlo Team Italia) crashed out in the final stages of FP2, causing an oil spill at turn 5. Both riders were able to rejoin with Zaccone eventually finishing in the top 10.

GEMAR Balloons –Team Lorini rider Ayrton Badovini finished fourth ahead of Axel Bassani for San Carlo Team Italia. Kallio Racing’s Niki Tuuli was knocked out of his FP1 spot in the combined times, finishing sixth but still gaining entry to Tissot-Superpole 2.

MV Agusta Reparto Corse rider Jules Cluzel will be able to fly his French flag after finishing seventh in the combined times ahead of Christian Gamarino (Team GOELEVEN) in eighth. Alex Baldolini (Race Department ATK #25) improved from FP1 to finally finish in ninth ahead of ESS rider Alessandro Zaccone who rounded out the top ten.

GRT Racing’s Gino Rea took a quick tumble before rejoining but he wasn’t able to improve his lap time, falling out of the top 10. He will be fighting hard in Saturday’s Superpole 1 session to have a fighting chance at the top grid positions in Superpole 2.

WorldSSP Tissot-Superpole 2 will see today’s top ten battle it out at 11:55 local time (GMT+2) to decide Sunday’s grid.


More, from a press release issued by Honda:

Jacobsen misses top-10 finish in opening day of French round

Round 10 – France

Circuit Nevers Magny-Cours, France

PJ Jacobsen and the Honda WorldSSP Team have concluded the opening day of action for the French Round of the FIM Supersport World Championship in eleventh place, meaning that the young American rider will have to go through Superpole 1 tomorrow in order to battle for a spot on the first four rows of the grid.

Jacobsen started free practice 1 at Magny-Cours with good pace and, after running as high as third, he was demoted to seventh place as he could not put together a quick lap towards the end of the session. The 23-year-old from Montgomery, New York, worked hard with his crew in order to find a good direction of setup for his Honda CBR600RR Fireblade machine but, as FP2 progressed, he did not manage to step up his game and found himself outside the top 10 by only 0.138s.

Superpole 1 will get underway tomorrow at 11:30 local time (GMT +2).

Patrick Jacobsen 2

11th / 1’42.508

To be honest, I don’t really know what went wrong today. For the past couple of races, after a good start on Friday morning we found ourselves unable to improve in the afternoon session. We need to figure out what’s going on, because this definitely puts us on the back foot for Superpole and the race. This is my worst first-day result of the season, on a track where last year I got pole position and won the race, so there is clearly some work to do. Hopefully we can improve on what’s been a bad day and turn things around tomorrow.

Pieter Breddels

Technical Manager

After Lausitzring, where we didn’t do too badly on race day, we made some changes to the suspensions setup and the clutch settings because in Germany the bike was too keen on going sideways on corner entry. We clearly solved this problem but, unfortunately, today we were unable to put a good lap-time together. We will work on the data to see what to do and maybe try to come up with a setup that can be a sort of compromise between the one we used in Germany and the one we utilised today. Still, nothing is lost so as long as we improve tomorrow morning, we can still hope for a good result in Superpole.

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