FIM Superbike World Championship
Donington Park, England
May 27, 2017
Race One Results (all on Pirelli tires):
1. Tom Sykes, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), 23 laps, 33:56.457
2. Leon Haslam, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), -16.5 seconds
3. Alex Lowes, UK (Yam YZF-R1), -19.170
4. Marco Melandri, Italy (Duc Panigale R), -19.699
5. Michael Van Der Mark, Holland (Yam YZF-R1), -21.454
6. Leon Camier, UK ((MV Agusta 1000 F4), -23.376
7. Leandro Mercado, Argentina (Aprilia RSV4 RF), -24.979
8. Chaz Davies, UK (Duc Panigale R), -26.988
9. Jordi Torres, Spain (BMW S1000RR), -34.910
10. Xavi Fores, Spain (Duc Panigale R), -35.178
11. Roman Ramos, Spain (Kaw ZX-10RR), -38.585
12. Lorenzo Savadori, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 RF), -39.824
13. Eugene Laverty, Ireland (Aprilia RSV4 RF), -44.623
14. Randy Krummenacher, Switzerland (Kaw ZX-10RR), -52.539
15. Raffaele De Rosa, Italy (BMW S1000RR), -58.878
16. Ayrton Badovini, Italy (Kaw ZX-10RR), -63.994
17. Alex De Angelis, San Marino (Kaw ZX-10RR), -66.816
18. Ondrej Jezek, Czech Republic (Kaw ZX-10RR), -74.800
19. Jonathan Rea, UK (Kaw ZX-10RR), DNF, crash, -3 laps
20. Stefan Bradl, Germany (Hon CBR1000RR SP2), DNF, retired, -7 laps
21. Riccardo Russo, Italy (Yam YZF-R1), DNF, retired, -7 laps
22. Jake Dixon, UK (Kaw ZX-10RR), DNF, retired, -9 laps
More, from a press release issued by Dorna WSBK Press Office:
Donington Park Day Two
Sykes secures victory in dramatic WorldSBK race
Sykes wins ninth race in a row at Donington, wildcard Haslam and Lowes on podium, crashes for Rea and Davies
Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) took a brilliant win in Race 1 of the PATA UK Round in a dramatic race which brought crashes for Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). Wildcard Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) made it an all-British podium, as Sykes took an amazing ninth successive victory in his home race at Donington Park.
An incident-packed race saw provisional leader Davies go down in the early stages at turn 12, after he lost the front end. He picked his Ducati up to rejoin, eventually finishing eighth having crashed at the same corner as he did in last year’s Race 1 at Donington and this latest incident will be a big blow to his World title aspirations.
With 6 laps to go Sykes got through on his teammate Rea to lead and within just over a lap he had opened up a two second gap on his Northern Irish teammate. Rea then suffered a high speed accident at turn 3, crashing out of the race, but was soon back on his feet and was taken back to the pits on a scooter.
A superb ride by Haslam on his return to the series saw him take a highly creditable second place, whilst Lowes took third thanks to a late move on Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
Dutchman Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) completed the top five, with Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) making it four Brits in the top six to further delight the home crowd.
In seventh place Leandro Mercado (IODARacing) crossed the line a couple of seconds ahead of Davies, with Spaniards Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team) completing the top ten after 23 breathtaking laps around the exciting 4.023km Donington Park Circuit.
The riders and many of the fans in attendance carried stickers and flags in tribute to the late Nicky Hayden who tragically passed away earlier in the week after a cycling accident in Italy, with Sykes quick to pay his condolences to the Hayden family after the race in parc ferme. The podium finishers all wore t-shirts carrying Hayden’s famous number 69 in honour of the Kentucky Kid.
Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) and Riccardo Russo (Guandalini Racing) unfortunately suffered technical issues and ended up with DNFs.
The riders will be back in action on Sunday with Race 2 at the PATA UK Round at 3pm local time.
1st – Tom Sykes(Kawasaki Racing Team)
“Fantastic, I had to work for it, but I need to pass my condolences to Nicky’s family. It’s very strange to not have my next door neighbour here with his great smile so it’s been slightly strange all weekend. In a small way this is basically for him, and overall the weekend has been good and it’s nice to continue our form.”
2nd – Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
“Yesterdays pace, I felt comfortable to fight for the podium but today we had a bit of a problem and with the track temperatures changing it was behaving very differently. Obviously Chaz and Jonny crashed but I was just working my way through, working my own race and I’m so happy for Kawasaki Puccetti Racing.”
3rd – Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
“Leon came up the inside, I went off track and Eugene hit me, that’s expected from Leon with a wildcard, hes one of my best mates off track. It was a fantastic base and the bike was great, we had the pace for fourth but with Marco on the last lap, you’ve gotta go for it.”
More, from a press release issued by Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team:
Bradl pulls out of race one at Donington Park
UK Round
Donington Park, United Kingdom
The opening race of the UK Round of the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship was contested today at the Donington Park Circuit in central England, with Stefan Bradl forced into an early retirement after two thirds of the encounter.
The race got underway after a touching minute’s silence for the late Nicky Hayden, which took place on Donington’s start/finish straight. Nicky’s Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 #69 was surrounded by all Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team members, with an ocean of people made up of riders, fans, press and organising staff gathering around it.
Under a cloudy sky and with strong winds blowing across the 4.023km British circuit, the 27-year-old German rider maintained his position at the start, and by lap nine he was up to to 14th. With a clear track ahead, Stefan had to defend hard from a resurgent Davies, who had crashed out of the lead the lap before. After heading a group of three riders battling for 15th place, Bradl started to lose ground and ultimately returned to the pit-box at the end of lap 16, where he retired from the race.
On-track action for the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship at Donington Park will resume tomorrow morning at 9:50 local time (GMT +1) for the traditional 15-minute warm up, with the second encounter of the weekend to begin at 15:00.
Stefan Bradl 6
DNF
There was a lot of wind out there and that surely added some extra challenge to the race. Already from the start I could not ride the bike the way I wanted and then I had a near highside at Turn 1, after which I found it almost impossible to keep going. We’re not sure what happened yet, but the team is looking into it and I hope we can bounce back for race two.
Pieter Breddels
First of all I would like to thank Dorna on behalf of the whole team for the amazing job they did for the minute’s silence. It was really a great tribute to Nicky, it couldn’t have been done any better and it was really good to see the fans involved as well. Regarding the race, unfortunately things didn’t go the way we wanted but we’re now investigating to find out what the issue was, so that we can get ready for tomorrow.
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
First Win Of The Year For Sykes
On a dry track surface at Donington Park Tom Sykes (KRT) won his first FIM Superbike World Championship race of the season by a clear 16.5 seconds to close the points gap on his team-mate and championship leader Jonathan Rea (KRT) to 50. Rea was finally not able to compete for the win himself after a problem caused him to crash at Craner Curves, without injury.
Tom Sykes scored his ninth successive win at Donington Park for Kawasaki with his 32nd career victory today, after a race filled with drama and unexpected twists and turns.
In the morning, before the start of the first race, Superpole was won by Sykes – the 39th such success of his career and the first this season. Sykes set a new track best of 1’26.641 to record his Superpole win. Rea had qualified second in Superpole and lined up right beside his team-mate on the front row. Kawasaki MXGP rider Tommy Searle was a guest of the team this weekend and was on the grid for the start of race one, to offer support to his fellow Kawasaki riders.
At the beginning of the opening 23-lap contest Chaz Davies took the lead, from Sykes and Rea, then after one lap of the 4.023km track Rea slotted into second place, and then the lead, after Davies crashed out on lap seven.
Having been down in fourth place for a short period, after trying to pass Rea for second but running wide, Sykes found himself behind eventual podium finisher Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing).
Sykes, the 2013 champion for KRT, steadily worked his way into the lead at his favourite circuit and eventually had a clear run to victory.
Rea had experienced some vibration issues late in the race and had been forced to slow his pace, but was to crash at high speed as his tyre deflated with three laps to go.
Haslam, a wildcard rider for the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing team and riding with the blessing of his JG Speedfit Kawasaki British Superbike team, took his Ninja ZX-10RR to second place after Rea’s misfortune, but was already in line for a podium finish close to the end of the race after making a strong start.
With one more 23-lap WorldSBK race to go this weekend Sykes has closed the gap on long time championship leader Rea to 50 points.
Tom Sykes, stated: “That was a fantastic race and I enjoyed it. It turned out to be very difficult and not necessarily what I had in the plan but that is part of racing. We had a good start but during the attempted pass on Chaz I had a full fuel load and was just a little bit on the limit, I ran wide and did again on Jonathan. I lost a lot of time there but today’s experience has been a blessing in disguise really, because I now have a better understanding of the race bike set-up while riding with the others. All weekend I have been fairly much alone on track and doing my own thing and had some great results. But today being behind other riders was hampering the lap time. Overall to win here and continue my form at Donington is fantastic. ”
Jonathan Rea, stated: “About a lap before Tom passed me I started to get a lot of vibration entering the corner off the gas. I had a lot of chatter from the front and the rear. When Tom passed me it started to get worse and worse. All I was thinking about was to finish the race and get some points. In hindsight I should have pulled over because I would have saved my bike because it was completely destroyed. The team will have to build me a new bike for tomorrow so that is frustrating for the mechanics as well. I am really disappointed, to be honest.”
More, from a press release issued by MV Agusta:
TOP 6 FOR LEON CAMIER IN RACE1 AT DONINGTON PARK WHILE PJ JACOBSEN GOT THE 2ND ROW ON GRID IN TOMORROW’S WORLDSSP RACE
Under the grey sky of Donington Park, in the East Midlands area (UK), Leon Camier and his MV Agusta F4 RC closed in 6th position the first of two WorldSBK races, going back in 8th place in overall standings. PJ Jacobsen and Alessandro Zaccone will start respectively from the 2nd and 8th row on grid in tomorrow’s WorldSSP race.
WorldSBK – FP3, SP2, Race1
The pouring rain that welcomed the FP3 early this morning did not allow Leon Camier to take full advantage of the session in order to search the best setting on his bike, with the MV Agusta Reparto Corse’s rider able to close 10th in the Tissot-Superpole2 heat and ready to start from the 4th row in Race1.
The fluctuating weather condition, very typical at these latitudes, returns to darkening the sky as Race1 approaches, with Leon Camier starting fast from the 4th row and coming back to the top of the point-scoring area. At the end of the 23 laps scheduled on the British track, the Briton is able to ends in 6th position, going back to the 8th place in the championship standings.
WorldSSP – FP3, SP1, SP2
Fresh from yesterday’s outstanding performance, which saw PJ Jacobsen get the fastest lap time in the WorldSSP timesheet, today the American rider of Team MV Agusta Reparto Corse had to step back in 2nd row, after getting the 6th lap time in the Tissot-Superpole2, only 0.7s from the leader. His teammate Alessandro Zaccone had to face some extra difficulty, closing only 22nd in WorldSSP charts but still 2nd in the ESS’s ranking.
Leon Camier #2 WorldSBK – It was a positive day for sure, considering we managed to close in 6th position. We lost a bit of time in same areas but I tried to take advantage of the ones where I could make some good passes. Honestly, today it wasn’t possibile to do much more and I am happy with this position. Let’s stay focused on tomorrow’s Race2 for another positive result.
Patrick “PJ” Jacobsen #99 WorldSSP – Even if I closed in 2nd row, it wasn’t a good qualifying session for me because I suffered some little problems on the bike. The positive side is my team is working really hard and I am confident we can fix it for tomorrow, so we can make some good result in the race.
Alessandro Zaccone #61 ESS – I cannot say I am satisfied after this qualifying day. We have faced several problems today, with the bike still vibrating a lot and not allowing me to push hard. I think for the race we will get back to the setting we had on Friday, trying to get some extra feeling with the bike and return to the scoring point positions.
More, from a press release issued by Aruba.it Racing Ducati:
Melandri and Davies respectively fourth and eighth in Race 1 at Donington
After showing strong competitiveness in both practice and Superpole, the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team didn’t achieve the results it hoped for in Race 1 of the WorldSBK Championship at Donington (U.K.). In radically different climatic conditions compared with Friday – the tarmac being more than 10 degrees colder, and with strong winds blowing across the track – Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies closed in fourth and eighth position respectively.
Melandri, fifth in Superpole, faced some difficulties in the early phases of the race, going down to seventh position before being able to find a more consistent pace. The Italian then climbed back to third position, which he lost with only one corner to go due to a wind gust that, together with the front lifting from the ground under acceleration, pushed him temporarily off the track.
Davies, who took first row in Superpole with the third-best time, got off a strong start and took the lead at the first corner to impose and impressive pace in the high 1:27 mark. The Welshman however crashed during lap 7 at turn 12, rejoining the race in fourteenth position before climbing back to eighth.
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will resume action tomorrow at 09:50 (CET -1) for WUP. Race 2 is scheduled to start at 15:00. Due to the new grid regulations for Race 2, Davies and Melandri will start in 1st and 5th position respectively.
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #33) – 4th
“Today, the wind hindered our performance. During the race, the bike was moving a lot and the front kept lifting from the ground. For this reason, a gust pushed me off the track during the last lap, but I’m more disappointed for the sensations on the bike than the missed podium itself. I lacked confidence on the front and didn’t have much grip on the rear. I couldn’t replicate the times I did during practice yesterday, when we still weren’t at our 100 percent. In these cases, you need to think too much while riding, and it’s hard to push as hard as you want and make passes. We’ll start from pole position tomorrow, but first of all we need to find a better pace. We’re working on it, evaluating several ideas.”
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 8th
“I’m disappointed for the crash, because we had a really good pace at the start of the race. Yesterday we lacked stability, but the crew worked hard overnight and I was able to push hard at the front and stress our rivals a bit. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in the last corner, which is quite bumpy. I let go the front brake a little too quickly and the front unloaded too fast. It’s always a fine line between winning and losing. Looking at the bright side, we got back on the bike and salvaged some valuable points for the championship. Hopefully we can show a strong pace in Race 2 as well and make it to the checkered flag.”
Ernesto Marinelli, Superbike Project Director
“It’s been a difficult day, below our expectations. It’s a real pity that Chaz crashed out, because both before and after he showed a strong pace. Looking at the glass half full, we recovered 8 points for the championship. Marco unfortunately has some issues with both the front and rear, but we have room for improvement and we’ll do our best to bounce back in Race 2 with both our riders.”
More, from a press release issued by Althea BMW Racing:
Althea BMW with work to do at Donington
Castle Donington (UK), Saturday 27 May 2017
The sixth World Superbike round is taking place this weekend at Donington Park in the UK and, in today’s first SBK race, team Althea BMW closed ninth with rider Jordi Torres and fifteenth with Raffaele De Rosa. In the Stock1000 qualifying session, Marco Faccani has earned seventh position for tomorrow’s 15-lap race.
Superpole 1: Fourth and ninth respectively at mid-session, Jordi and Raffaele returned to the track with the soft tyre ready to complete their flying laps. In a very hard fought session, the Spaniard was able to complete a series of fast laps that saw him close third overall (1’28.554), just missed out on accesso to SP2 by one tenth of a second. A best time of 1’29.239 for De Rosa meant that the Italian finished eighth, which translated into 18th place on the race.
SBK – Race 1: From thirteenth on the grid, Torres gained one position almost immediately and a further two in the early stages to place tenth by lap six. Eleventh at the mid-race point, and lapping with a consistent pace, the Spaniard was able to pass Laverty, before fighting with Forés in the final laps to finish today’s race in ninth place. De Rosa, with work to do from eighteenth on the grid, was up to fifteenth after one lap. Lapping fairly consistently, he oscillated between 15th and 16th place for the duration of the race, crossing the line in fifteenth position.
STK1000 Qualifying: Faccani made the most of today’s 30-minute session, completing a number of laps with interesting lap times and fighting, particularly in the final stages, for a good position on the race grid. His best time of the day, a 1’30.468 was enough to see him conclude in seventh position, so a third row start for the Italian in tomorrow’s 15-lap race.
Jordi Torres:
“Unfortunately, we were unable to solve the vibration issues on the bike this morning. I’m also sorry that I missed out on a place in SP2 by so little. In the race, I had quite consistent pace, which allowed me to pass a couple of riders. Considering the difficulties, finishing the race ninth wasn’t bad but tomorrow we have another opportunity and so I hope to be able to do more.”
Raffaele De Rosa:
“It was not an easy race, particularly with the strong wind. In the initial laps, I tried to make up a few places but it was tough. I spent most of the race lapping with Bradl who I think was having similar problems to me. I managed to finish the race but the tyre was pretty much destroyed, I need to continue to work to adapt my riding style in order to tackle some of the problems we’re having…”