Jonathan Rea continues perfect winning streak with opening victory in Thailand
The third race of the 2017 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship in Thailand on Saturday brought a third successive victory for defending WorldSBK champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), after he set a new pole record lap earlier in the day.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) joined Rea on the podium after a 20 lap race in stiffling temperatures of 36°C.
The Northern Irish rider held on to the lead after a good start saw him take the holeshot from pole. Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), Sykes and Davies positioned themselves behind Rea’s Kawasaki ZX-10R in the early stages but none of them could match the World Champion’s pace.
Jonathan Rea
“I did not know what my pace would be. I know it was fast enough to fight for the win but when I saw I had a gap of 0.4 seconds in the first lap I decided to try and put my head down as much as I could. As soon as I broke the one second mark I knew that slipstreaming was not going to come into play for the riders behind, so I just set my own rhythm. My pace was 1’33 and honestly I made a couple mistakes on some laps and was still in the 1‘33s. I managed to hold that rhythm and not try to over-push. It looks like we used the tyre a little bit on the right side but I guess that was to be expected as we were six seconds up the road at the end. I am really happy with that race.”
Davies won the battle for second, finishing six seconds behind Rea and just under two seconds in front of the pursuing Sykes. Melandri was just off the podium, less than a tenth of a second behind Sykes, whilst a good performance from Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) saw the Dutchman complete the top five.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 2nd
“I was hoping for more, but in the race I realized that even finishing second wasn’t an easy result. We had some limitations, especially in the first two sectors of the track, which surprised me a bit. It wasn’t easy to pass Sykes and Marco and it took us some time. Looking at the big picture, last year after this race we were trailing by a lot more points in the championship. Consistency is the key at the moment. We have to be realistic and what’s positive is that this is the best result by myself and Ducati here at Buriram, which is a difficult track for us.”
Tom Sykes – 3rd
“I had some limitations early on in the race with the brakes. I was not able to brake strongly initially and that meant I was unbalanced towards the apexes of the corners. I was still able to keep quite a consistent pace and close down Marco at the end. It was nice to take a podium but it was the beginning of the race where we were missing the initial pace – and that is not like us! We will keep working and try to improve that aspect for tomorrow. I was pushing and pushing at the end and finally with three laps to go I changed the entry to some corners and tried to use the tyre to the best. I think in the end we did a good job so I’m happy to recover a third place.”
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #33) – 4th
“It was a hard race because of the heat, but physically I felt OK. At first I pushed very hard to stay with Rea, and managed to be more aggressive than in Phillip Island, but we still missed something. Unfortunately, as the laps went by, we struggled under braking. During free-practice we didn’t encounter these issues, but we also didn’t do long runs. This made it difficult for us to keep a constant pace. Looking at the bright side, tomorrow we will start from pole position, which could turn into an advantage given that our closest rival will be on third row.”
Ernesto Marinelli, Ducati Superbike Project Director
“We knew it would have been a tough race, and the higher temperatures didn’t help us today. Still, we made big steps forward compared with 2016. Chaz was really fast and constant in the second half of the race. Unfortunately Marco had some problems with the front brake towards the end. We barely missed the chance to put both our riders on the podium, but we’re not far and we’ll use WUP to try some new solutions to get closer to our competitors.”
Another solid race from Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) saw his good form continue in sixth place, with the top ten completed by Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team), Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), Nicky Hayden (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) and rookie Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team).
Michael van der Mark – P5 – Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team
“I was really happy with Superpole. We made a big step this morning then Superpole was really good and sixth was very positive for us at this stage of the year. Third to sixth place was really close in Superpole. That was important for us to be in there with them. For the Race I got a decent start and kept my position. For the first couple of laps Alex and I lost a bit in the first two sectors but in the corners we made it up. I am really happy because I was really consistent through the whole race – we just need to find a little bit more! I am happy with fifth place in my second race weekend with the team. I think everyone can be really happy today!”
Alex Lowes – P6 – Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team
“Superpole was good because we went in with a new setting on the bike, new tyres and it felt really good. We stuck with that for the race. As the tyres dropped it was not quite as good as it had been in Superpole but it was still a step up from what we had during the practice sessions. I have struggled all weekend finding the feeling that I want and I had to settle for sixth in that race. I am hopeful of some improvements tomorrow, to get my feeling back a little bit and have a good race. My tyre in the race today was good at the end, almost too good, and I think I can work it a bit more at the beginning tomorrow. I seemed to be spinning too much rather than me using the tyre to the full so I am quite confident we can make some improvements before race two.”
Paul Denning – Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team – Team Principal
“We can be very happy with the performance of both riders, the Crescent crew and all the Yamaha team after today’s race. The Chang circuit was always going to be a bigger challenge than Phillip Island in terms of outright pace compared to the top competitors but we took a huge step forward in performance compared to a year ago. Both riders stayed focused and got the best out of the YZF-R1s for the whole 20 laps. For Michael to finish only three seconds off the podium is going to be a huge confidence boost for him. His rhythm has been very strong here all weekend, his consistency is incredible and we just need a little more outright performance to help him take the next step forward. For Alex, he didn’t feel entirely comfortable with the setting and struggled to find the sweet spot compared to Michael so far this weekend. We will make some more adjustments for warm-up tomorrow and see what we can achieve. Both riders start from the front row now, which gives us a chance to be a little bit closer to the action in the early laps and we will do our best in Race 2 to take another step forward.”
Nearing the end of the race, in which the riders completed over 91km in the intense heat and humidity of Buriram, Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team) dropped back from the fight for eighth with Torres and finished 11th.
A technical issue with the RSV4 RF of Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) at turn 5 on the final lap cost him points when he was running in seventh, whilst Ayrton Badovini (Grillini Racing Team) crashed on lap 6 and suffered a DNF, though fortunately the Italian was unharmed in the incident.
Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team’s Nicky Hayden and Stefan Bradl scored their first top-10 results of the season by finishing ninth and tenth, respectively. With this result and the new grid format for race two, Hayden will start the second encounter of the Thai round from sixth place on the grid, while Bradl will again occupy the sixteenth slot.
Hayden got a good start from fourteenth position on the grid and was able to move up a couple of places during the opening lap; as the race progressed, he put up a good battle with Camier for eleventh place and, after having the better of Xavi Fores for tenth in the final stages, he was elevated to ninth on the final lap after Eugene Laverty’s technical problem.
Nicky Hayden – 9th
“For Superpole this morning we made quite a few changes to the setup to try and sort out the engine braking and I started to feel a bit better on the bike, although I am yet to find the right feeling. I made a good start to the race and stayed in the group fighting for eighth; I hung on in there, trying to learn as much as possible and to see what was our pace like. On some parts of the track the bike was working well, while on others we were struggling a bit. We will take this ninth position but we still need to find some more consistency with the bike, which would allow me to push and ride it the way I like. However, there is still one night and the warm up to try some new stuff ahead of race two.”
Bradl’s first lap was not as easy, as the 27-year-old German was pushed wide at turn one; he therefore ended up losing some positions as he was unable to get the best drive out on to the long straight. In the second part of the encounter and with less tyre grip, Bradl was able to improve his pace and make some ground to the riders ahead, eventually snatching tenth place from Fores at the final corner.
Stefan Bradl – 10th
“The race was not too bad. The bike is becoming better and, although there is still a lot of work to do, in the second half of the race I managed to set some strong times. My best lap was a 1.35.0 just before the chequered flag despite the overtake on Fores at the last corner. What we need to improve the most, though, is our performance at the beginning of the race, because the electronics don’t seem to work at their best with fresh tyres. All in all we have found some consistency and that’s a great thing, but we need to improve our pace.”
Pieter Breddels – Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team
“We entered the race with some unknowns still, because there were still things to be sorted out after Superpole. What we decided to focus on was to give the riders a package they could be consistent with and we kind of hit the target with that. Nicky got a good start and was able to join the battle for eighth place and rode a great race to ninth place at the line. There is still some work to do ahead of race two, but there was an improvement nonetheless. Stefan took a bit more time to get up to speed, but in the second part of the race and especially in the closing stages he was able to settle into a nice rhythm. We need to look now into the data to make sure he can be competitive in the first part of the race as well. Overall, we are still far from where we want to be, but we are making steps in the right direction.”
The second WorldSBK of the Round 2 weekend in Thailand takes place at 4pm local time on Sunday at the Chang International Circuit, which will see Melandri start from pole position, ahead of Van der Mark and Lowes.
WorldSBK Race 1 standings
1) J. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
2) C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
3) T. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)
4) M. Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
5) M. Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
6) A. Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
7) J. Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team)
8) L. Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)
9) N.Hayden (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team)
10) S. Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team)
11) X. Forés (BARNI Racing Team)
12) R. Krummenacher (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
13) L. Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia)
14) M. Reiterberger (Althea BMW Racing Team)
15) R. Ramos (Team Kawasaki GoEleven)
16) A. De Angelis (Pedercini Racing SC-Project)
17) R. Russo (Guandalini Racing)
18) O. Jezek (Grillini Racing Team)
OUT) E. Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia)
OUT) A. Badovini (Grillini Racing Team)
WorldSSP: Cluzel shows his mettle for pole position – Frenchman on pole at Round 2 after crash in Australia
Saturday’s WorldSSP action at the Chang International Circuit saw Jules Cluzel (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda) produce a lap of 1’37.683 for pole position, in a Tissot Superpole 2 shootout which took place in scorching hot (36°C) conditions.
Despite suffering a fracture of the sacrum bone in a final lap crash at Phillip Island at Round 1, Frenchman Cluzel demonstrated his tenacity to lap quicker than the rest of the field in the intense Thai heat. Just behind him on the grid is impressive local wildcard Chalermpol Polamai (Yamaha Thailand Racing Team), who lapped +0.447s behind Cluzel.
French rider Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team) completes the front row having qualified +0.473s behind his compatriot Cluzel, with another Thai wild card Decha Kraisart (Yamaha Thailand Racing Team) heading a second row which will also feature Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) and Kyle Smith (GEMAR Team Lorini).
Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Team), Hikari Okubo (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda) and Christian Gamarino (BARDAHL EVAN BROS. Honda Racing) are on row three, with Kyle Ryde (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), PJ Jacobsen (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) and Gino Rea (Team Kawasaki Go Eleven) on the fourth row. Rea appeared to have technical issues towards the end of Tissot Superpole 2 and lapped +1.74s off P1.
From the earlier Tissot Superpole 1 session Caricasulo and Khairuddin were the riders to make it through to Superpole 2. Meanwhile Kallio Racing colleagues Niki Tuuli and Sheridan Morais (Kallio Racing), along with Robin Mulhauser (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda), were just behind Khairuddin in Superpole 1 and therefore start the second WorldSSP race of 2017 on row five.
Indeed Sunday’s WorldSSP race in Thailand will commence at 2.30pm local time at the Chang International Circuit.
Pole Position: Jules Cluzel – CIA Landlord Insurance Honda
“We were faster by half a second, so I am happy! I really feel good; I did after my first run, but I was out on track alone. I feel like the first session was warm up, and the second I just pushed. I wanted to push as I thought I was a little bit behind the Thai rider, but I did a good lap. I enjoyed a lot and I think tomorrow will be even better, well I hope so!”
WorldSSP Tissot-Superpole 2
- Jules Cluzel (FRA) Honda 1.37.683
- Chalermpol Polamai (THA) Yamaha 1.38.130 (+0.447)
- Lucas Mahias (FRA) Yamaha 1.38.156 (+0.473)
