Sykes sets Donington pace; injury sidelines Staring

After being in the top three all day, Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) posted a series of 1.27 laps to round out the opening day on top at an overcast Donington Park. The reigning Champion was within half a second of his own outright circuit record and he takes an advantage of almost a quarter of a second into tomorrow.

Behind Sykes, the top ten in the combined three session classification, and therefore automatically into Tissot-Superpole 2 are as follows: Davide Giugliano (Ducati Superbike Team), Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team), Loris Baz, Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team), Eugene Laverty (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), Pata Honda duo Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike Team), and Chaz Davies.

The EVO standings were once again headed by Niccolò Canepa (Althea Racing Ducati) who was 11th overall. Leon Camier (BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike Team) left it until FP3 to show his real potential moving into 12th overall just behind the flying Italian rider.

Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team) crashed at Redgate corner with 18 minutes to go, both riders able to walk back to the paddock uninjured.

Alessandro Andreozzi (Pedercini Kawasaki) made it into Tissot-Superpole by claiming the final spot in 20th just beating his team mate Romain Lanusse, who is making his World Superbike debut this weekend.

Bryan Staring (Iron Brain Grillini Racing Kawasaki), who replaces Michel Fabrizio for the remainder of the year, will take no further part in the round because of the injury he sustained prior to coming to Donington Park. The Australian rider was unable to fully manoeuvre on the machine, resulting in him withdrawing from the event.

Times: 1. Sykes (Kawasaki) 1’27.840 average 164.877 kph; 2. Giugliano (Ducati) 1’28.082; 3. Guintoli (Aprilia) 1’28.132; 4. Baz (Kawasaki) 1’28.181; 5. Lowes (Suzuki) 1’28.187; 6. Melandri (Aprilia) 1’28.467; 7. Laverty (Suzuki) 1’28.495; 8. Rea (Honda) 1’28.665; 9. Haslam (Honda) 1’28.833; 10. Davies(Ducati) 1’28.947; 11. Canepa (Ducati) 1’29.435; 12. Camier (BMW) 1’29.684; 13. Iddon (Bimota) 1’29.999; 14. Badovini (Bimota) 1’29.999; 15. Salom(Kawasaki) 1’30.020; 16. Elias (Aprilia) 1’30.555; 17. Foret (Kawasaki) 1’30.643; 18. Guarnoni (Kawasaki) 1’31.135; 19. Corti (MV Agusta) 1’31.480; 20. Andreozzi (Kawasaki) 1’31.877; 21. Lanusse (Kawasaki) 1’32.032; 22. Morais (Kawasaki) 1’32.064; 23. Toth (BMW) 1’32.339; 24. Yates (EBR) 1’32.615;NC. May (EBR) 1’34.194; NC. Sebestyen (BMW) 1’34.519; NC. Staring (Kawasaki) 1’35.916.

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) posted a series of 1.27 laps to round out the opening day on top at an overcast Donington Park. The reigning Champion was within half a second of his own outright circuit record and he takes an advantage of almost a quarter of a second into tomorrow.

Sylvain Guintoli: “Today was a very demanding day with three sessions and a lot of testing. The bike is performing very well at the moment on the flying lap, but we still need to work on race pace. We have the speed, our times are proof of that, so we just need to focus on pace to make sure our performance is consistent and to get the most out of the RSV4 over long distance”.

Alex Lowes: “Today felt good! The last session we made some good improvements to the Voltcom Crescent Suzuki, did a longer run on the harder tyre and then got a bit caught-out with the rain so we didn’t get the chance to use the softer tyre for a better lap-time. Despite that it was really good, I’m happy with the improvements made to the bike and obviously I enjoy riding this track. I think we’ve got a pretty good pace, we’ve put a lot of laps in today, a lot of hard work; and hopefully it will pay off this weekend!”

Marco Melandri: "We still haven't taken a decisive step but, especially in the afternoon when we went back to a standard setup, I was able to go fast in a few laps. We are working 360 degrees to find a setup that will let me be fast and consistent and we are also waiting to see how the weather develops because that will be the biggest unknown of the weekend”. — Marco Melandri: “We still haven’t taken a decisive step but, especially in the afternoon when we went back to a standard setup, I was able to go fast in a few laps. We are working 360 degrees to find a setup that will let me be fast and consistent and we are also waiting to see how the weather develops because that will be the biggest unknown of the weekend”.

Eugene Laverty: “The first session was good; the second session was really good! I had a smile on my face because everything looked like it was going to plan, and then in the third practice we lost more-or-less the whole 45 minutes. We had a technical glitch and again - just like Imola - we’ve lost more track-time and you can’t afford to give these guys an advantage like that. That said, our base-level feels pretty good and I’m positive we can do well here.” — Eugene Laverty: “The first session was good; the second session was really good! I had a smile on my face because everything looked like it was going to plan, and then in the third practice we lost more-or-less the whole 45 minutes. We had a technical glitch and again – just like Imola – we’ve lost more track-time and you can’t afford to give these guys an advantage like that. That said, our base-level feels pretty good and I’m positive we can do well here.”

Jonathan Rea - P8 - “Honestly, it’s been a tough day to get a good base setting around here. We started from zero with our electronics here so we came to our initial setting with information from last year. It seems like we’ve been chasing a engine brake setting all day but the good news is that in the final session we found some improvement so I think we’re on top of that. It seems like we wasted a lot of time concentrating on that and it seems like the forecast for tomorrow is not so good to continue in the final free practice with a dry set-up. But, if this afternoon was our final dry session before the race, we have some ideas to go with. It’s not been a perfect day but we can take some positives that we’ve improved the bike. I guess tomorrow we’ll focus on our wet set-up and see what happens on Sunday.” — Jonathan Rea – P8 – “Honestly, it’s been a tough day to get a good base setting around here. We started from zero with our electronics here so we came to our initial setting with information from last year. It seems like we’ve been chasing a engine brake setting all day but the good news is that in the final session we found some improvement so I think we’re on top of that. It seems like we wasted a lot of time concentrating on that and it seems like the forecast for tomorrow is not so good to continue in the final free practice with a dry set-up. But, if this afternoon was our final dry session before the race, we have some ideas to go with. It’s not been a perfect day but we can take some positives that we’ve improved the bike. I guess tomorrow we’ll focus on our wet set-up and see what happens on Sunday.”

Leon Haslam - P9 - “We didn’t really make much progress between sessions one and two, and we could really have done with a night’s sleep then to think about everything and make a better step to session three as normal! So, yeah, it’s been tough having three sessions today and we lost a bit of progression. We can see the issues though, and we know where they are, so I’m confident we can make a step. We could use another dry session, but it looks like the weather is going to say otherwise. So we need to make some progress, sure, but it’s not as bad as it looks on the timing sheets!” — Leon Haslam – P9 – “We didn’t really make much progress between sessions one and two, and we could really have done with a night’s sleep then to think about everything and make a better step to session three as normal! So, yeah, it’s been tough having three sessions today and we lost a bit of progression. We can see the issues though, and we know where they are, so I’m confident we can make a step. We could use another dry session, but it looks like the weather is going to say otherwise. So we need to make some progress, sure, but it’s not as bad as it looks on the timing sheets!”

Aaron Yates: “After a few laps I had a good feeling both with the track and the bike. I especially appreciated the traction control. I had some little problems with setting up the brakes in the last two sessions and I could not improve as much as I wanted. Anyway I really look forward to racing on this track on Sunday.”

Geoff May: “We worked hard all the day but I had to spend all my time learning the track and improving the set-up of the bike. I am sorry an electrical problem stopped me from riding the last session but I really hope tomorrow we can make some further improvements.”

World Supersport

Former World Supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Mahi Team India Kawasaki) narrowly took the number one position in the combined standings after two close and exciting Supersport sessions at Donington Park today.

With almost everyone in the field improving this afternoon the top eleven riders were covered by a second, giving us the prospect of yet another thrilling encounter on Sunday.

Saturday round up and results from Donington WorldSBK

July 17, 2022

BSB Rnd Donington Sun DYeoman Scott Redding AROA

Scott Redding paints Donington BSB Ducati Red

May 27, 2019

Upon completion of today’s on-track encounters it was Sofuoglu who goes into tomorrow’s next free practice session at the top of the standings after displacing current points leader Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Supersport) and Britain’s Kev Coghlan (DMC-Panavto Yamaha) in the closing minutes.

4th overall went to Florian Marino (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres), with Imola winner Lorenzo Zanetti (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) and PJ Jacobsen (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres) completing the top six.

Jack Kennedy (CIA Insurance Honda) survived a high speed grass tracking moment to finish 7th.

British wildcard rider Sam Hornsey (Anvil Hire TAG Triumph) was 17th while World Supersport regular Fraser Rogers continued to struggle with the Complus SMS Honda as he ended the day 22nd overall.

Christian Gamarino (Go Eleven Kawasaki) tumbled this morning and didn’t take part this afternoon. The Italian should be back on track tomorrow.

Former World Supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu (Mahi Team India Kawasaki) narrowly took the number one position in the combined standings after two close and exciting Supersport sessions at Donington Park today.

Times: 1. Sofuoglu (Kawasaki) 1’31.196 average 158.810 kph; 2. Vd Mark (Honda) 1’31.313; 3. Coghlan (Yamaha) 1’31.340; 4. Marino (Kawasaki) 1’31.568; 5. Zanetti (Honda) 1’31.658; 6. Jacobsen (Kawasaki) 1’31.669; 7. Kennedy (Honda) 1’31.870; 8. Tamburini (Kawasaki) 1’31.934; 9. De Rosa(Honda) 1’32.033; 10. Cluzel (MV Agusta) 1’32.171; 11. Wilairot (Honda) 1’32.237; 12. Russo (Honda) 1’32.366; 13. Rolfo (Kawasaki) 1’32.556; 14. Nocco(Kawasaki) 1’32.567; 15. Bussolotti (Honda) 1’32.639; etc.

Tags: Donington Park Round Five Superbike World Championship World Superbike

Sykes sets Donington pace; injury sidelines Staring

Saturday round up and results from Donington WorldSBK

Scott Redding paints Donington BSB Ducati Red

Trev

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Sykes sets Donington pace; injury sidelines Staring

RelatedPosts

Saturday round up and results from Donington WorldSBK

Scott Redding paints Donington BSB Ducati Red

Trev

Related Posts

New Guzzi V7 Sport joins updated V7 range for 2025

MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 Entry Lists for 2025 season

Go ‘Full Gas to the Finish’ with the GASGAS Enduro, XC, MX sale

Honda CRF300 Rally Review – Motorcycle Test

GET LATEST NEWS IN YOUR INBOX

Support MCNews On Patreon

SUPPORT OUR SUPPORTERS