Sepang WorldSBK Rider Quotes
P1 – Nicky Hayden – Honda World Superbike Team
“I’m really happy for this win. Last night I was so frustrated that my crew chief asked me if I was OK and told me not to give up. I told him not to worry, and that I was just a bit of a sore loser. This morning in the dry we had good pace and great potential. When it started raining I knew I had to go for it: I’m definitely not in the championship fight and that meant I could risk a bit more. In the first laps I took some chances to get to the front and I didn’t want to get caught up racing in a pack like in Assen. I wanted to be at the front with clear visibility. As I got to the front the bike worked so well because the team knows the bike inside out and the set-up was perfect. I tried to stay as comfortable as possible while in the lead because we weren’t sure of tyre durability on this track with the new asphalt. I managed to pull a gap and definitely in the end wasn’t easy, because those guys were coming for me. I was able to hold on to the lead and get my first win in a long time. It’s been a few dry years but I never stopped trying; to get a win at this point in my career in Superbike is truly amazing.”
Pieter Breddels – Honda WorldSBK Technical Manager
“Nicky simply put together the perfect race today. The rain didn’t catch us unprepared, because we had already a good set-up for the wet from day one at Assen. He got a great start and was able to get a 3-4 second margin that he managed right to the end, despite a great comeback by Giugliano. Nicky was able to counter attack whenever he saw that the gap was closing too much. So, it was a victory after a long time both for him and us, and we’re over the moon. We hope that this is only the beginning. Michael was doing well at the beginning of the race but unfortunately, with the track drying up he had a severe drop of grip. He did well to hold on to sixth and I’m confident that the next round he will fight for more.”
P2 – Davide Giugliano – Aruba.it Racing Ducati
“I’m very happy, because the race was both fun and solid for us. After the first few laps, we found a good pace and towards the end I wanted to try to pass Hayden and win, but it would have been risky and I didn’t want to exaggerate. It was very important for me to step back on the podium after a few races below expectations. We’ve made steps forward throughout the weekend, and even in the dry I believe we would have been more competitive, so we need to stay on this path. I want to thank the whole team for not stopping to believe in me in the most difficult times.”
P3 – Jonathan Rea – Kawasaki Racing Team
“It is so difficult in a weekend when you have all dry sessions, a dry race one – and then two hours before race two a monsoon comes in! I am proud of my team because they were so reactive to the changing conditions. I feel we got it quite close and my bike was giving me quite a lot of feedback out there. The strategy in the wet was just to do the rhythm. It was important to keep the corner entry traction off the tyre, as normally that is the first area that suffers. So when I set off it was just about managing everything. Nicky was too far in front for me to want to really grit my teeth and go for him. I was happy with our performance and that was the maximum we could do. Maybe if I had the race again I could have gone with Nicky in the beginning but third was the result we got today and we achieved our target for the weekend. That was to increase our championship lead, so I am happy we did that.”
P4 – Chaz Davies – Aruba.it Racing Ducati
“It was a strange race, because with 7 laps to go I thought we could win but the next lap I realised we were in trouble. The track conditions were pretty homogeneous, so the tyres were not too difficult to manage, but we struggled with grip in corner exit. I had to work the front quite a bit to make up for that, and its performance dropped all of a sudden. I’m semi-happy with the final outcome. Obviously I would have liked to have done more, but we were in contention for most of the race. In wet races anything can happen, and we only lost 3 points in the championship. We’ll move forward in Donington.”
Ernesto Marinelli – Ducati Superbike Project Director
“I’m very happy for Davide’s second place, it was really important for him and the team to have a strong weekend after a few difficult races. It was crucial especially to keep going in the right direction, and I think we achieved that. Overall, we can be satisfied. It surely has been a weekend full of question marks but, as for Chaz, while it’s true that we lost some points in the championship, we can say we limited the damage to finish both races in a good position and bring home important points.”
P5 – Anthony West – Will run some words from Westy later on
P6 – Michael van der Mark – Honda World Superbike Team
“In the warm up this morning we tried something different again but it didn’t really work out. Before the race I didn’t know what to expect and I think the rain came a bit like a gift for us. My start wasn’t so good and I got pushed wide at the first turn, but I immediately got a good feeling in full-wet conditions and was able to bridge the gap to the front. As soon as the track started to dry out, I started struggling with the grip and couldn’t brake as hard as I wanted to. I’m really disappointed because the result could have been much better and I feel we were still missing something. I’m really happy for Nicky and his first win; we on the other hand have to find that competitive set-up again, the one that allowed us to do so well in Australia and Thailand. I’m pretty sure we will be back at the front in Donington.”
P8 – Tom Sykes – Kawasaki Racing Team
“It was a big shame after the strong run we have had over the other parts of race weekend. I looked at a small change for the dry conditions today but heading into the wet we took on some experience from the Assen weekend and then went racing. But when the water cleared the grip from the surface was quite high. Unfortunately we did not have the perfect set-up for the grippy surface. I was not able to push the tyres onto the ground and get the traction we needed. Other than that, I felt if we would have made some changes we could have been stronger. I am disappointed not to capitalise on our momentum from yesterday’s win, but this is racing sometimes.”
P10 – Markus Reiterberger – Althea BMW
“First I want to say thanks to my team for helping me during this great weekend, which I’ve really enjoyed. I was a bit nervous before this second race as I had no idea what we could do in the wet. I was cautious in the early laps as I wasn’t used to this type of conditions. Then I was able to build confidence and make up some time in the second half of the race. I finished tenth which, considering it was my first SBK race in the rain, I’m very happy with. After some rather difficult events, I feel we’ve really made progress here and I’m looking forward to the next races.”
P13 – Jordi Torres – Althea BMW
“With the rain we knew it would be difficult, but for everyone of course, seeing as we had no idea what the grip would be like in the wet. For us it was useful in understanding more about the bike’s behaviour in the wet and how we are fixed in terms of traction control. I was able to understand a lot of things, and the data we’ve collected will be useful for our continuing development. I wanted to be further forward of course but it wasn’t possible today. Considering the conditions, we weren’t too far from the leaders in terms of time and we take this as a positive as we continue our work to prepare as well as possible for Donington.”
DNF – Team Yamaha – Alex Lowes
“I really struggled from the start of race two with rear grip coming out of the corners compared to the guys around me. I tried my best to perform as well as I could, using different lines and changing my body position to compensate, and then with about six laps to go I tried to push a bit more. I actually managed to make some good passes and was looking at another top five finish but then ultimately I tried a bit hard for the grip I had and paid the price for it. It was quite a heavy crash and I’m in quite a bit of pain but I just need to get myself fixed up and hopefully be back as soon as possible.”
Paul Denning – Team Yamaha Principal
“A very disappointing end to a largely positive weekend here in Sepang. Having been so fast in the wet at Assen we hoped that we would have a good opportunity in the extreme wet conditions this afternoon but unfortunately we weren’t able to provide Alex with as much rear grip as everybody would have liked on this very different Sepang circuit layout and surface. As always Alex applied himself 100% to achieve the best result possible, and having learnt to maximise his potential was going forward and another decent result was on the cards. The accident was extremely unfortunate and whilst Alex describes it as his mistake, and perhaps as a team we could have chosen a better setting for the YZF-R1, ultimately you also need a bit of luck in racing and it seems to be rolling against us pretty heavily at the moment. Let’s see how Alex, and indeed Sylvain are at the end of next week and hope that we can represent ourselves well at Donington Park in a fortnight’s time.”
