WorldSBK Race Lap Record: 1:40.640, Jonathan Rea, 2017

WorldSBK Pole/Circuit Best Lap Record: 1:38.960, Marco Melandri, 2017

Motul FIM Superbike World Championship

Jerez, Spain

June 7, 2019

Free Practice Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):

1. Alvaro Bautista, Spain (Duc Panigale V4 R), 1:39.428

2. Michael Van Der Mark, Netherlands (Yam YZF-R1), 1:39.695

3. Jonathan Rea, UK (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:39.732

4. Tom Sykes, UK (BMW S1000RR), 1:39.934

5. Sandro Cortese, Germany (Yam YZF-R1), 1:40.057

6. Alex Lowes, UK (Yam YZF-R1), 1:40.192

7. Marco Melandri, Italy (Yam YZF-R1), 1:40.365, crash

8. Michael Rinaldi, Italy (Duc Panigale V4 R), 1:40.419

9. Leon Haslam, UK (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:40.562

10. Toprak Razgatlioglu, Turkey (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:40.616

11. Chaz Davies, UK (Duc Panigale V4 R), 1:40.637

12. Jordi Torres, Spain (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:40.742

13. Loris Baz, France (Yam YZF-R1), 1:40.855, crash

14. Leandro Mercado, Argentina (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:40.918

15. Markus Reiterberger, Germany (BMW S1000RR), 1:41.042

16. Alessandro Delbianco, Italy (Hon CBR1000RR SP2), 1:41.728

17. Yuki Takahashi, Japan (Hon CBR1000RR SP2), 1:41.925

18. Tommy Bridewell, UK (Duc Panigale V4 R), 1:42.016

19. Ryuichi Kiyonari, Japan (Hon CBR1000RR SP2), 1:42.172

More, from a press release issued by Dorna WorldSBK Press Office:

#ESPWorldSBK– Day 1

Bautista back on top at the end of Friday free practices in Jerez

WorldSBK championship leader bounces back on top in Spain ahead of Micheal van der Mark and Jonathan Rea

Day one at Jerez has concluded for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, with Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) putting in a late lap in FP2 to go top. Despite a late red flag after a spectacular crash for Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha) left gravel and debris on the track at Turn 4, a flurry of action concluded the session with many changes in positions.

Championship leader Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) was on top in FP2 for the majority of the session before being knocked off his familiar perch by van der Mark for a brief moment. The Spanish rookie, who has raced at Jerez many times, went back on top in the closing stages with the fastest lap of the weekend. Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) had a tough day at the office, but you can never discount the Welshman; the former WorldSBK runner-up finished eleventh overall.

Michael van der Mark continued his strong performance from the morning session, becoming the first rider to go into the 1’39s in FP2, improving in the final five minutes to consolidate his strong pace. His teammate, Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was again a prominent figure at the sharp end, ending the day in fourth, with the Pata Yamaha pairing enjoying the return to Jerez.

The Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK strategy for Jonathan Rea looked to be to send him out and get him to dial laps in, with the reigning four-time WorldSBK Champion setting numerous consecutive fast laps. On his tenth lap, Rea improved his time before finally improving to third on the combined timesheets, improving his time in the latter part of the session but remaining in third. His teammate Leon Haslam completed the day in ninth in the session and overall.

2013 World Superbike Champion Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) didn’t improve his time overall until very late in the session, placing fifth overall, ahead of Tissot Superpole on Saturday. Whilst Sykes showed strong signs of improvement, Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was out on track for the first time. With no lap time set in FP1, FP2 proved crucial for the German rider, who finished 15th at the end of the day.

A strong start in FP1 for Melandri saw the Italian crash in FP2, albeit with himself being OK and riding the bike back to the pits. He finished sixth on combined times. Teammate Sandro Cortese improved his time and completed the day in seventh, with a strong end to FP2. It has been a strong start for Yamaha at the Acerbis Spanish Round, with four in the top seven.

In eighth place, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team) enjoyed a strong FP2 and maintained his top ten placing from FP1. The Italian was the second Ducati in the session and also, the third Independent team rider behind the GRT duo. Turkish Puccetti Racing rider Toprak Razgatlioglu finished tenth at the end of the day.

WorldSBK returnee Loris Baz was back with a bang, as he had a massive crash at Turn 4, although he was OK. His bike cartwheeled through the gravel trap, bringing out a momentary red flag for debris.

WorldSSP: Teammates Caricasulo and Krummenacher dominate day one of action in Jerez

Leading the championship and leading the way at Jerez, another duel between the BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team riders looks set to take place in Spain

The opening day of FIM Supersport World Championship action saw plenty of action throughout the two sessions. Come the end of play on the opening day, it was BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team duo of Federico Caricasulo and Randy Krummenacher that were on top, with Jules Cluzel (GMT94 YAMAHA) back in third. A brief red flag was shown earlier in the session for Glenn van Straalen, who crashed, leaving a lot of gravel on the circuit needing to be cleaned away.

It was a strong end to the day for Caricasulo, who just pipped his Swiss teammate overall by 0.048s. The duo has been battling all season, with the WorldSSP title pendulum swinging from one rider to the other. The end of day one at Jerez sees the Italian on top overall, at a track he won at from pole in 2017, whilst Krummenacher couldn’t improve his time. In third position, Jules Cluzel, who hadn’t featured at the front for the majority of the session, improved at the end of the session to consolidate his top three placing.

Fourth position belonged to Raffaele De Rosa (MV AGUSTA Reparto Corse) raced up the order late on, confirming his pace after his podium at Imola. Fifth place went to 2017 WorldSSP Champion Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). The Frenchman suffered a small tumble at Turn 2 but rounded the day off in fine style. In sixth position on combined times was Austrian rider, Thomas Gradinger (Kallio Racing). A track at which he has very little experience on, Gradinger has had a strong start to the weekend.

Seventh position saw a solid start to proceedings for Hikari Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), as the Japanese rider goes in search of his first career podium. Behind him, the first of the home-heroes, Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing), who was just 0.3s off of a top three slot, whilst in ninth, Britain’s Kyle Smith (Team Pedercini Racing) was reacquainting himself to the Jerez circuit. Tenth position went to Smith’s teammate, Ayrton Badovini.

A brief red flag was brought out after a crash for Glenn van Straalen (EAB Racing Team) at the penultimate corner, with gravel on the circuit as a consequence. His fellow countryman, Jaimie van Sikkelerus, made a return to action after his surgery between rounds. They finished 18th and 25th respectively.

WorldSSP300: Gonzalez leads Spanish 1-2 after WorldSSP300 day one!

The home heroes are out in force, but Indonesia’s Hendra Pratama heads the chasing pack!

It was an exciting opening day for the WorldSSP300 Championship, as after the opening two Free Practice sessions, lap times were already under the existing lap records for the class at Jerez. Heading the timesheets on day one, championship leader Manuel Gonzalez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team), aiming to keep his 100% record after the opening rounds of the season. Marc Garcia (DS Junior Team) and Galang Hendra Pratama (Semakin Di Depan Biblion Motoxracing) were second and third respectively.

Gonzalez set about his Friday looking to build on his positive start to the season, with the Spaniard coming to the circuit as championship leader and favourite for a home win. Heading the timesheets, he looks set to enjoy another great weekend. It was a positive start for Marc Garcia, who returns to the scene of his 2017 title win. The Spaniard made it a 1-2 for home-heroes, whilst Galang Hendra Pratama was flying the Indonesian flag high in third.

In fourth position, Tom Edwards (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) had a strong session and was in fourth place on the combined sheets. The Australian’s time was 0.779s from the top time but with plenty more track action, expect him to be strong throughout the remainder of the weekend. Fifth position was the first of the Group B riders, with Victor Steeman (Freudenberg KTM Junior Team), with Mika Perez (Scuderia Maranga Racing) in sixth.

Ana Carrasco (Kawasaki Provec WorldSSP300) was only ninth in Group A in FP2, subsequently leaving her outside of the top ten overall, whilst Scott Deroue (Kawasaki MOTOPORT) was also languishing down the order; both riders with work to do ahead of Saturday and Sunday.

More, from a press release issued by Moriwaki Althea Honda Racing Team:

Yuki Takahashi returns to Jerez after six years, Kiyonari faces the Spanish track for the first time on the opening day of the Spanish round

On the opening day of round 6 of the WorldSBK season, Yuki Takahashi was back in action at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto for the first time in six years, his last appearance at the Spanish track having been in Moto2 in 2013.

The Japanese rider, who is substituting for a recovering Leon Camier, finished fifteenth in the morning and seventeenth at the conclusion of the first two free practice sessions.

Ryuichi Kiyonari, who is facing the Spanish track for the very first time, positioned sixteenth in FP1 and nineteenth at the end of the day.

The two riders hope to improve on both their bike set-up and performance in tomorrow’s final practice ahead of the Tissot Superpole at 11am and Race 1 at 2pm.

Yuki Takahashi

17TH 1’41.925

“I know the Jerez layout of course, having raced here many times in the past, but last time I rode here was six years ago and in Moto2, not Superbike, which makes quite a big difference. Despite having tested in Misano just a few days ago, we did not have a lot of time available on the bike due to the adverse weather conditions, and I feel I need to gain more experience on it in order to properly work on the setup and adjust it for Jerez. We made some changes to the bike’s balance after the morning session, but those did not work out as we expected and so we retraced our steps. We collected useful data though, so tomorrow we’ll try and take a good step forward”.

Ryuichi Kiyonari

19TH 1’42.172

“This morning I rode the Jerez track for the first time, and I must say I immediately felt good.

Unfortunately, this afternoon was really disappointing as we were not able to make the improvement we were looking for, and even bettering our lap times by half a second compared to the morning was not enough to prevent us to drop back in the classification. Tomorrow we’ll do our best to improve of course”.

More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:

Rea Third After Opening Sessions In Spain

KRT rider Jonathan Rea used the opening day of the WorldSBK round at Jerez to work though race set-up and tyre options, ending up third fastest overall. His fellow KRT rider Leon Haslam began his weekend ninth in the lap times, working on finding an ideal race set-up.

In warm yet windy conditions, with almost 50°C track temperatures at the end, the second of two free practice sessions saw Rea’s top three lap time earned late in the session – and only after he and his team had met their main set-up aims.

As always in 2019 the team has only two sessions on Friday to find an ideal set-up in readiness for Superpole qualifying and then race one on Saturday 8 June. Rea had been fifth overall in FP1, improving to finish inside the top three in readiness for Superpole on Saturday.

Haslam was seventh fastest in the morning session on Friday in Spain, but ended up ninth as – like some other riders – he could not improve on his FP1 pace in the afternoon.

On Saturday the KRT riders will take part in a final FP3 shakedown in the morning, then Tissot Superpole qualifying and finally Race One, which is scheduled for 20-laps of the 4.423km long circuit. Sunday will feature a ten-lap Tissot Superpole Race and a final 20-lap battle.

Jonathan Rea, stated: “It was a really positive day in the end as we managed to turn things around. The biggest challenge was coming from riding the Endurance machine in Japan only a few days ago to this morning. I got a little bit lost with my feeling on the bike. Also, since they re-asphalted the surface here the grip is so, so high. It is an abnormal feeling to ride on it and you do not understand the limit because the grip is so high. So, I am just trying to acclimatise to that. I also tried all options of rear tyres to confirm our understand of which one to use. In the afternoon session we changed a few things to give me a bit more confidence on the brakes and we reconfirmed the step we made in a Misano test with my position on the bike. I was happy with where we were.”

Leon Haslam, stated: “This morning wasn’t too bad but we were suffering in the same areas as Imola to get the bike to stop. This afternoon it was harder and kept losing the front. We found a better way right at the end, and even on 15 lap-old tyres I set my best lap over the session. So there were some positives but it was a tough one. It looks like it will continue hot like it was this afternoon. So that is something we need to look at, make a bit of a plan and then see where we can get to tomorrow.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) was tenth fastest today, Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) 12th, despite losing some track time to electronics glitches. Leandro (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) came back to action today after recent injury, and was 14th from the 19 riders on track.

More, form a press release issued by Barni Racing Team:

Rinaldi eighth after free practice sessions at Jerez

Jerez de la Frontera (SPA), 7th June 2019. Barni Racing Team Ducati’s rider Michael Rinaldi started the first day at the Circuito de Jerez Angel Nieto – sixth round of MOTUL FIM WorldSBK Championship – claiming 8th place in the combined session times.

The flagbearer of the team from Bergamo used the 50-minutes morning session with a clear goal in mind. With cloudy weather and 19 °C of the air and 30 °C on tarmac he knew that the track temperatures would rise and bring big changes in terms of tyre decisions. The Italian used FP1 to get his bike ready for FP2, expecting different conditions, nevertheless, at his penultimate flying lap of FP1 he jumped into the sixth place thank to his 1’40.290, personal best lap of the day.

In the early afternoon the sun finally appeared on Jerez Circuit and temperature increased until 24 °C of the air and 49° C on track, the number-21 rider went down to business using the entire session to fine-tune his Ducati Panigale V4 R setting not trying the flying lap.

Marco Barnabo, Team Pincipal

I’m glad to see that the new Showa components already tested at Misano let us to do a step forward here too. This means that we are working in the right direction to improve our bike. Everything went well in this two free practice sessions, we worked methodically and the rider expressed good feelings riding the bike.

Michael Rinaldi

P8 (1’40.290)

During the tests in Misano we did an excellent job finding a good base to start on all circuits and today we confirmed that we are on the right way. After Imola’s round Showa brought new components, but the most important thing is the decision to change the working method and the results begin to appear. Today, despite working only for the race, we are eighth. We didn’t look the performance on a single lap, but we were focused only in finding the right feelings with heat and used tyres. There is still a free practice session to improve our setting, this makes me even more confident.

More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:

Yamaha Enjoy Strong Opening Day in Jerez

Free practice

Michael van der Mark led the way for Yamaha on the opening day Jerez, with the Pata Yamaha WorldSBK rider topping the timesheet in FP1 before finally finishing in second place, just two-tenths off the time of provisional pole sitter, Alvaro Bautista. Alex Lowes closed out the day with a long run on race tyres in FP2, but his time in the first free practice session was enough to secure the Briton fourth place on the timesheet. A resurgent Marco Melandri was sixth fastest, with his GRT Yamaha Supported WorldSBK teammate, Sandro Cortese, just one place further back in seventh position. Making his debut for the Ten Kate Yamaha Supported WorldSBK squad in Jerez, Loris Baz ended the day in 13th place, despite a high-speed crash at Turn 4 this afternoon.

Van der Mark and Lowes made their mark early in Jerez, with the Pata Yamaha pairing making it a Yamaha one-two at the top of the timesheet in FP1. While van der Mark continued working to improve braking stability in FP2, Lowes opted to run a race simulation to evaluate tyre endurance, critical for the two feature length races in Jerez, where track temperatures will be far higher than those experienced during winter testing at the circuit back in February.

Both Pata Yamaha riders also used today’s two free practice session to confirm their findings from last week’s Misano test, with positive results.

Melandri and Cortese also benefitted significantly from the progress made at the recent Misano test. Melandri in particular was extremely positive about the improvements to his Yamaha YZF-R1, after rediscovering the confidence that has been absent since Thailand saw him finish today sixth on the timesheet.

After a difficult weekend on his first visit to Imola two weeks ago, Cortese was back on the pace today in Jerez, a track at which he has a lot of experience and which he rates as one of his favourites. The reigning Supersport World Champion finished seventh today, less than a tenth behind his GRT Yamaha teammate, but is confident of further improvement ahead of tomorrow’s 20-lap Race 1.

Ten Kate Yamaha’s Baz got his first race weekend aboard the Yamaha YZF-R1 off to a solid start with 12th position in FP1 this morning. The Frenchman was looking to improve further this afternoon but lost valuable track time as a result of a high-speed crash at Turn 4 that, fortunately, he walked away from uninjured.

Michael van der Mark

Pata Yamaha WorldSBK – P2 – 1’39.654

“It’s been a really positive opening day and I felt good with the bike from the start. The changes we tested in Misano really seem to have worked and that inspired a lot of confidence in the R1. We knew this afternoon would be interesting once the track temperature went up, so we wanted to see how the bike reacted to that. Again, I was quick from the start, but we still need to do a bit more work to improve on the brakes, as I’m still struggling a little to get the bike stopped. But, overall, I’m really happy with the first day here in Jerez.”

Alex Lowes

Pata Yamaha WorldSBK – P4 – 1’39.839

“We made a good start in FP1 this morning, finishing the session second behind Michael. This afternoon I did just over race distance on a set of tyres, which dropped us down the times a little but the pace was still good. We’ve got some new parts that we weren’t able to test over a long run at the Misano test because of the weather but, after today, we have a much better understanding of the bike and where we’ve improved. I’ve always been fast here in Jerez, so I know I can do the times, but we just wanted to work on the bike on worn tyres and in the hotter temperatures this afternoon, to get a better feel for how it’s going to be in the race tomorrow. A good start to the weekend and one on which we can build for the race tomorrow. I’m happy.”

Marco Melandri

GRT Yamaha Supported WorldSBK – P6 – 1’40.030

“I’m feeling much better on the bike with a different riding position and that also gave me a better feeling with the tyres. Now we have to work in a slightly different way for the set-up but I’m happy, because for the first time I’m not so far from the front and it looks like we are going in a good way. I think our weekend here in Jerez can be different to the last few races.”

Sandro Cortese

GRT Yamaha Supported WorldSBK – P7 – 1’40.057

“It was a very positive start and we saw an improvement in both the base setting and the lap times between the two sessions today. The conditions were very special, very hot, but the second session was more or less the same time as the race tomorrow, so it gave us an opportunity to work on set-up in very similar conditions. We had a positive test in Misano and the updates we got from Yamaha are all working well, so I’m happy and confident for tomorrow.”

Loris Baz

Ten Kate Yamaha Supported WorldSBK

“It was an up and down first day, let’s say. I’m not really happy because I’ve given my guys a lot of work to do tonight with the fast crash at the end of FP2, which definitely wasn’t in the plan, but we also need to understand why I crashed because it was a bit strange. Apart from that the day was going well; we weren’t that far from the other four Yamaha riders and we managed to improve on the set-up we finished with at the Misano test. We need to continue working in this way tomorrow and then use the race as another opportunity to increase our understanding with the bike. I’m looking forward to tomorrow already.” 

More, from a press release issued by Aruba.it Racing Ducati:

Positive opening day for Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), who sets the quickest time after the first two free practice sessions at Jerez de la Frontera. Further back Chaz Davies who ends the day in eleventh place

Spanish rider Álvaro Bautista put in a great performance today in the first free practice sessions of the Spanish World Superbike Round at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Andalusia. The 34-year-old from Talavera de la Reina was third in the morning’s FP1 behind the pair of official Yamaha riders, while in the afternoon, during the final part of the session, he made the best of a new tyre to carry out a time attack and set a time of 1’39.428, which earned him the provisional pole position.

Team-mate Chaz Davies encountered a few more problems in adapting to the Jerez track today, and the Welshman was unable to go any higher than eleventh place in the two sessions. Despite today’s difficulties, the 32-year-old racer is confident he can move back up the field tomorrow in the third and final FP run and the qualifying session.

Tomorrow the third and final free practice session will be held at 09:00 CET, followed two hours later at 11:00 by Superpole qualifying for the starting-grid line-up for Race 1, which gets underway at 14:00.

Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #19) – 1st (1’39.428)

“Today it was a very positive day, even though in the morning session we had a few problems with excessive tyre wear, probably because of the track conditions after the rain that fell overnight. In the afternoon therefore the work focussed on this aspect in particular. I really liked one of the new rear tyre solutions for its durability and consistency even though we used it over a distance that was longer than that of the race, at the same time also improving the feeling with the front over this morning. Tomorrow we’ll focus more on fine-tuning the chassis because I’m convinced we can make a further improvement and as a result another step forward.”

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 11th (1’40.637)

“Today has been a bit tricky and we struggled a little bit with the front overloading all the time. We need to rebalance the bike to give me better feeling and speed on entry, connect the dots in the middle of the corner and keep the corner speed. Despite these problems, I’m fairly confident of improving tomorrow, it’s just that we were a bit too wide of the mark today. Jerez is a different track to Imola, and what works there doesn’t work here so we’re going to have to make some changes.”

More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team:

A day of mixed results for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team at the Circuito de Jerez

07.06.19

Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto

Following a successful test last week in Misano the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team headed to Jerez (Spain) for Round 6 of the FIM World Superbike Championship.

This morning’s Free Practise 1 session was difficult for the #28 of Markus Reiterberger as a clutch issue forced him to miss out the session meaning valuable track time was missed, in the afternoon session the issue was resolved and he managed to get 20 laps under his belt. Despite getting out for the second session the German struggled to get a good feeling with his BMW S 1000 RR and found himself in P15 on combined results, his fastest being a (1’41.042).

Team mate Tom Sykes however managed to get some good solid laps in the opening FP1 session as he lapped his best of a (1’40.438) completing 17 laps. The second session saw rise in temperature and with riders making changes between sessions the lap times were evidently going to fall. Sykes manage to beat his opening FP1 time by -0.504 (1’39.934) putting him in P5 on combined times.

Shaun Muir – Team Principal

“Yeah a really difficulty day for Markus, we came out from the test at Misano with not a bad feeling but in FP1 this morning he was forced out with a clutch issue so we lost all that session. FP2 he was playing catch up from the start and really found it difficult to find a comfortable setting with the bike. We’ve made a big change for Markus for tomorrow which is a big gamble but I think it’s the right direction we need to be working in.

Tom worked through all his set-ups that we planned, we tried the range of tyres that are available as it’s going to be tyre critical with the hot temperature tomorrow so, I think Tom is in a good position overnight going into FP3 and Superpole tomorrow. “

Tom Sykes (GBR)

“I’m quite happy because all things considered we weren’t chasing a lap time so I’m relatively happy to be in the top 5, but the focus today has been trying to understand some components over the distance. Our lap times have been consistent but we still need to see if it is competitive for the race tomorrow.

“We still need to look at a tenth here and there during the lap but overall I am happy with the progress of the S 1000 RR considering how early we are in this project. My target now is to have a good run of the next four rounds and it starts here in Jerez.”

Markus Reiterberger (GER)

“We are not where we want to be on the first day and not where we should be for sure. The first session we lost completely with the clutch issue which set us back a lot, the second session was better and in the early stages we were in the top 10 but couldn’t improve on this and ended up slipping down the P15.

“We are really struggling at the moment but I hope tomorrow will be a better day for us and we can get the bike setting which works for me. “