Kawasaki 1-2 in Donington WorldSBK Race Two
An incredible start for the Kawasaki Racing Team pairing of Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea saw the two Brits escape at the front of the race, beginning a more than twenty lap tussle that eventually saw Sykes earn an eighth victory at the Derbyshire track.
Reigning Champion Rea crossed the line in P2 to take another podium and keep his incredible haul of points for the title increasing, and Ducati’s Chaz Davies found redemption after a tricky Race 1 in which the Welshman suffered two crashes, completing the podium in third.
Sykes was the pacesetter throughout the weekend and the Yorskhireman’s Kawasaki wasn’t beaten into Turn 1 in Race 2, but teammate Jonathan Rea got an incredible start from the second row to set off in Sykes’ wake around Donington Park. Staying with his teammate, Rea made some moves to take the lead but a small mistake at the final turn saw Sykes regain the lead and then find the legs to pull away to cross the line 2 seconds clear.
Chaz Davies made amends for his Race 1 after a difficult Friday with technical problems and locked out the podium in P3, with teammate Davide Giugliano having some issues and unable to repeat his podium from Saturday. The Italian Ducati rider came home in P7.
Lorenzo Savadori had another impressive performance onboard the IodaRacing Aprilia and converted his front row start into a repeat of the rookie Italian’s best ever P4 finish claimed earlier in the season, ahead of MV Agusta rider Leon Camier, riding at home, who put in a sterling ride to bring the Italian marque home in illustrious company in the top 5.
Honda’s Nicky Hayden had a good start and hunted down Giugliano and Savadori in the initial stages, before encountering a drop in pace and eventually succumbing to Camier in the closing stages and coming home in P6. Teammate Michael van der Mark dueled with Milwaukee BMW rider Josh Brookes and beat the Australian over the line to take P8.
Brookes, who has a lot of experience at Donington, moved up through the field to finish in P9 and top BMW at the Milwaukee team’s home race.
The top ten was completed by stand in rider Cameron Beaubier riding for Pata Yamaha in place of injured Sylvain Guintoli, with the American putting in a calm and solid performance to gain some good points for the team.
Anthony West took more points for Pedercini Kawasaki with 12th.
After a history-making weekend at Donington, Round 8 sees WorldSBK back on track at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on the Riviera di Rimini from 17th – 19th June as Ducati race at home once again.
Tom Sykes – P1
“Eight in a row at Donington feels fantastic and I am over the moon. I had a good start to race two and had good pace. For sure it was not perfect and for sure that is why we had a lot of pressure. We did a very good job and had to fight again, so it is more rewarding when you win like this. I am grateful to Kawasaki, Marcel, Danilo and all the boys in the garage because we have won three of the last four races, which is quite promising. We have won on some difficult circuits this year, physically and from a point of view of the types of tracks. Thailand, Sepang and two-times here – which is a circuit of two halves. Consistently, I think we are getting better. I am going to bed tonight thinking we have had a perfect weekend.”
Jonathan Rea – P2
“I got another neutral going into the final hairpin corner, just as I had made my pass, so I was a little bit frustrated with that. In the end of the race I did not have much for Tom. I feel my bike was working really good, so I want to thank my team, especially as we have been working close with Kawasaki and all the crew to get the bike suited to me. It seems we are getting there now. In the last few races we have defined the engine character that I really like, so now it is the balance of the bike that seems to be working. To be so close to Tom, in a circuit that he is so strong at, is good because he is riding really strongly now. I am happy for that and happy to come here and make a big margin in my championship lead as well. That is the priority – but it would have been really nice to cap it off with a win in race two. My bike was feeling really good but near the end I just suffered a little bit with arm pump in my right arm.”
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 3rd
“It’s definitely good to step back on the podium after the difficulties we’ve encountered here in Donington. Most of all, it was important to score a positive result after not being able to finish the race yesterday. I think it all began with our problems on Friday, and yesterday I probably pushed a bit too hard, but we’re here to win races and you have to give it a try when you’re in the lead. We know we can do better, there are certainly a few aspects under which we can improve, but it was difficult to beat the Kawasakis on this track. Today, we’ve made some good progress also thanks to the data we gathered yesterday during the race, and the goal is to get to Misano in a different position. We’ll prepare the next round with two days of tests next week, and the first objective will be to improve our results from 2015.”
Nicky Hayden – P6
“Of course, I cannot be happy with sixth place but I have no excuses; the team did a great job with the bike and we switched to a harder front tyre, which gave me better stability under braking in the downhill corners. I did my fastest lap of the weekend, including qualifying, today. My pace was much quicker than yesterday but I simply wasn’t fast enough, especially after halfway when I started experiencing a little technical problem that hurt our performance a bit. I also struggled in changing direction, especially when lifting the bike and I had a couple of big moments at the Esses. Too bad, because for a while I thought I could close the gap to Chaz Davies and fight for the podium. As I said thanks to the team because the bike was better today and now we just need to come up with something to improve it a bit more.”
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) – 7th
“This weekend left a bittersweet taste in our mouth. After a strong race yesterday, we were hoping to make another step forward to be competitive until the very end of the race. Instead, we had some problems under braking and in corner entry, still to be clarified, which were detrimental to our performance. Here in Donington there are 3 or 4 hard-braking corners where it’s possible to make the difference, and we lost a lot of time each lap there. Still, yesterday’s second place can’t be taken away from us, and now we need to work harder to make sure we don’t run into similar stumbling blocks in the future and keep improving. I can’t wait to race in front of our fans in Misano, a track where we’ve been usually quite competitive.”
Michael van der Mark – P8
“It has been another difficult race for me, in all ways similar to the one I had yesterday. I was able to make a couple of places at the start but I got stuck again in the battle for eighth with Josh Brookes and Cameron Beaubier. I was eventually able to pass them and stay ahead, but it definitely wasn’t easy. Our starting position surely didn’t help, but we wouldn’t have had the pace anyway to battle for the top 5. There’s still a lot of work to do and we will start with Misano. Hopefully next week’s test there will help us find the solution to the problems I have been experiencing lately.”
Cameron Beaubier – P10
“I struggled for the opening third of the race just because, honestly, crashing on the opening lap yesterday hurt me more than I originally realised just with the lack of track time and losing all that experience. The second half of the race I felt a lot better on the bike, two guys came past me and I thought they were going to leave me but slowly I started to chip away and claw my way back to them, which felt good. It is one of those things, I feel that if today was yesterday and we could start on a new day tomorrow after the race we’ve just had, that we would have been able to put myself in a much better position. I’m not really happy with tenth, obviously I want to be a bit higher up than that, but I’m happy with how I felt towards the end of the race. I wanted to try to pass one of them on the last lap but I ran out time! Most importantly I just want to thank Pata Yamaha for giving me this opportunity and for Yamaha US for letting me come to do this. It was a really fun weekend, I learnt a lot and I hope to do it again someday.”
Paul Denning – Yamaha Team Principal
“Of course, a tough weekend without Alex and Sylvain being able to ride, but thanks to them both for attending today and spending time with our sponsors and guests. Cameron has done a great job – the depth of talent in WorldSBK is significant and it’s never easy jumping on a new bike, with a new team and on tyres you’ve never ridden before. He has summed it up perfectly – 23 laps yesterday in Race 1 would have set us up much better for today. Even so, a hard fought top-ten in your first WorldSBK race is nothing to be sniffed at, so thanks to Cameron for his efforts and to Keith McCarty and the team at Yamaha US for loaning us their talented rider.”
WorldSBK 2016 – Round Six – Donington – Race Two Results
1. Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team
2. Jonathan Rea Kawasaki Racing Team +2.017
3. Chaz Davies Aruba.it Racing – Ducati +4.437
WorldSBK 2016 – Round Six – Donington – Championship Standings
1. Jonathan Rea Kawasaki Racing Team 293
2. Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team 237
3. Chaz Davies Aruba.it Racing – Ducati 231
WorldSSP: Supersport Perfection for Sofuoglu at Donington
The most successful World Supersport rider of all time – Kenan Sofuoglu – has taken another win in 2016 in a supreme display at Donington Park in the UK. The Turk lost the lead off the line before hunting down Honda rider PJ Jacobsen to retake P1 and subsequently pulling away from the chasing pack. American Jacobsen crossed the line in P2 for another podium finish, and second Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Randy Krummenacher completed the podium in third in another impressive ride in his rookie year in WorldSSP.
A battle of the Brits raged just behind the podium finishers as front row starter Luke Stapleford battled Friday’s fastest Gino Rea, before GRT rider Rea managed to pull away and bring his MV Agusta home in P4, just ahead of the Triumph of Stapleford on home turf. Lorini rider Ayrton Badovini, after an amazing duel to the finish in Sepang, dueled once again at Donington but this time with ATK 25 rider Alex Baldolini. The duo were then joined in the fight by local rider Kyle Smith.
CIA Landlord Insurance Honda rider Smith, who won the race in Assen, got past Badovini with only a handful of laps remaining, then setting his sights on next Italian Baldolini. The Brit managed to fight off both to cross the line in P6 for another good haul of points, with Baldolini just behind him and a last minute move from MV Agusta Reparto Corse rider Jules Cluzel seeing the Frenchman take P8 from Badovini on the final lap. Cluzel had a difficult qualifying and is suffering effects from his crash in Jerez in 2015, with the result proving an impressive comeback ride for the Frenchman to finish in the top ten.
Lorenzo Zanetti, after a duel with his MV Agusta teammate Cluzel, completed the top ten for the Italian marque. The top FIM Europe Supersport Cup rider at Donington Park was once again Alessandro Zaccone for San Carlo Team Italia, with the young Italian impressing in his debut WorldSSP outings.
Round 8 will see WorldSSP back out to battle at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on the Riviera di Rimini in June, as Sofuoglu sets his sights on the ever-closer fifth WorldSSP crown.
P1 – Kenan Sofuoglu
“I knew I could be very strong in the race and we won the Superpole yesterday. This morning we had a good pace and in the race I pulled a gap, then with five laps to go I could see Jacobsen getting closer. I had a lot of spinning on the left side of the tyre, but I managed to keep the distance with Jacobsen. Of course I am very happy, because it was quite important to get these 25 points for the Championship .”
P4 – Gino Rea
“It’s been a very positive weekend and fourth is a very strong race result. When you look at the data and our pace at mid-race, we were matching the times of my competitors who achieved the podium positions. I couldn’t quite close the gap to them unfortunately, but we have to be pleased with the result because of our pace. We’re all still learning, as we haven’t had a dry race for a while, since Thailand I think. I would really have liked a podium at home, but I was the top Brit anyway. Thanks to my team for their great work all through the race weekend. We will take the positives from this weekend and now we’ll look ahead to Misano, where we hope we can continue our progress and taste the champagne.”
Aiden Wagner
“The race ended a lot better than qualifying, and we were able to make up ten positions with respect to where we were on the grid. We’re still not in the points zone, where I know we are capable of being. Anyway, the race has taught us a lot about the bike and my riding, and so we have things to work on, and improve on, for the next race. I’m pleased that we were able to make consistent laps, and that my fastest lap was actually the last lap. Thanks to my team for their hard work”.
WorldSBK 2016 – Round Six – Donington – Supersport Results
1. Kenan Sofuoglu Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
2. PJ Jacobsen Honda World Supersport Team +1.569
3. Randy Krummenacher Kawasaki Puccetti Racing +3.775
WorldSBK 2016 – Round Six – Donington – Supersport Championship Standings
1. Kenan Sofuoglu Kawasaki Puccetti Racing 121
2. Randy Krummenacher Kawasaki Puccetti Racing 95
3. PJ Jacobsen Honda World Supersport Team 76
