Motul FIM Superbike World Championship
Jerez, Spain
October 20, 2017
Free Practice Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):
1. Jonathan REA, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), 1:40.435, crash
2. Tom SYKES, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), 1:40.888
3. Michael VAN DER MARK, Netherlands (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:40.890
4. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), 1:40.935, crash
5. Lorenzo SAVADORI, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:41.086, crash
6. Sylvain GUINTOLI, France (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), 1:41.194
7. Alex LOWES, UK (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:41.244
8. Leon CAMIER, UK (MV Agusta F4 RC), 1:41.281
9. Leandro MERCADO, Argentina (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:41.299
10. Jordi TORRES, Spain (BMW S1000RR), 1:41.313
11. Eugene LAVERTY, Ireland (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:41.414
12. Roman RAMOS, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), 1:41.449
13. Raffaele DE ROSA, Italy (BMW S1000RR), 1:41.585
14. Xavi FORÉS, Spain (Ducati Panigale R), 1:41.620
15. Alessandro ANDREOZZI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:41.987
16. Davide GIUGLIANO, Italy (Honda CBR1000RR SP2), 1:42.218
17. Riccardo RUSSO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), 1:42.262
18. Chaz DAVIES, UK (Ducati Panigale R), 1:42.456, crash
19. Ondrej JEZEK, Czech Republic (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), 1:42.786
20. Takumi TAKAHASHI, Japan (Honda CBR1000RR SP2), 1:42.918
21. Ayrton BADOVINI, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), 1:42.989
22. Dominic SCHMITTER, Switzerland (Suzuki GSX-R1000), 1:45.382
More, from a press release issued by Dorna/WorldSBK Press Office:
Champion Rea ends Friday on top
Sun shines down in dramatic Spanish Friday
It was an eventful Friday at the Pirelli Spanish Round for Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) as he crashed early in FP2, having earlier set the fastest time of the day in the morning practice. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) were second and third best respectively, with their best times coming in FP2.
In the first ten minutes of the afternoon session Rea crashed at turn 8, tumbling heavily through the gravel. His team worked hard to repair his machine and before the end of the session he was back on track notching fast laps. Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) crashed at turn 13, also in the opening ten minutes of FP2 and he did not reappear in the session – ending the day tenth overall.
In fair weather conditions under clear blue and sunny skies in the south of Spain Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) was fourth fastest overall, just ahead of Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). Melandri and Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team) both suffered technical problems at the end of a hectic FP2 run.
Meanwhile, Lowes – who sits fifth in the general standings after a good year so far – undertook a long run in FP2 setting a consistently fast pace on his Yamaha YZF R1.
Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) was sixth quickest, just head of his teammate Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia). In quick succession in FP2 Savadori set his fastest lap of the day, had a big wobble and then crashed at turn 2 towards the end of the afternoon outing. The Italian was soon back on his feet and back out on track after his accident.
Roman Ramos (Team Kawasaki Go Eleven) held provisional P1 in FP1 before ending the day eighth. 2014 World Champion Sylvain Guintoli was back in action getting to grips with the Kawasaki ZX-10RR, riding for the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing at the final two rounds of the season, lapping in ninth on the combined timesheets on his return to WorldSBK action.
Takumi Takahashi (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) got a feel for the Jerez track on his Honda CBR1000RR in 20th place after a technical problem early in FP2.
As the riders undertook their first practice earlier in the day at the Pirelli Spanish Round it was Rea who put in the fastest lap of the superb 4.423km Circuito de Jerez with an excellent late 1’40.291 time. The triple World Champion really picked up the pace in the latter stages of FP1 on a resurfaced track and was 0.6s faster than closest challenger Lowes. Melandri was just 0.002s behind Lowes in third in that session.
Also in the morning session…Raffaele de Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) lost the front at turn one in the final minutes of the session but the Italian walked away unhurt. Ayrton Badovini (Grillini Racing Team) had a copycat spill at the same turn shortly afterwards and was also soon back on his feet.
The action will continue on Saturday at the penultimate round of the 2017 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship at Jerez, with the WorldSBK riders returning to the track for FP3 at 8.45am local time, followed by SP1 at 10.30am, SP2 at 10.55am and Race 1 at 1pm.
More, from a press release issued by Althea BMW Racing:
Althea BMW hard at work in Spain
Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), Friday 20 October 2017
The penultimate round of the 2017 Superbike World Championship is underway at the Spanish track of Jerez de la Frontera. The Althea BMW Racing team took part in today’s two timed practice sessions, concluding this first day of action in thirteenth place with Jordi Torres and in fourteenth position with Raffaele De Rosa.
In the morning’s first timed practice, Spanish rider Torres made a good start to his ‘home’ race weekend, completing a series of fast laps to position eighth at the session’s end, thanks to a best time of 1’41.330. His team-mate De Rosa set a fastest time of 1’42.053 to close the first session in twelfth place.
The afternoon’s second session proved to be a tougher one for the Althea BMW pair. Despite some difficulties, De Rosa was able to lower his time, by half a second, in the final minutes (1’41.585) while Torres managed to shave a fraction of a second off his best (1’41.313). The Italian squad therefore rounded out day one in 13th place with Torres and in 14th with De Rosa.
Jordi Torres:
“It looks like everyone’s having a few issues with the new asphalt to be honest, me included. Perhaps the electronics don’t help but we seem to be lacking grip and stability. I don’t have the right grip to be able to lean over fully and it’s difficult to know how hard we can push. Every time I put a new tyre in I would only manage a couple of laps before there was a drop in grip. So a few problems but we’ve collected a lot of information that I hope helps us to find a compromise for the bike for tomorrow. I’ll do my best in SP1 in the hope of being able to move on to SP2.”
Raffaele Da Rosa:
“We’ve finished day one and although we did our best to get into SP2 we were unfortunately unable to do so. I’m a little more comfortable on the bike I think, but a small crash this morning at turn 1 caused me to lose some of the feeling with my bike. We’re also working to improve grip over race distance, important considering the new asphalt. We have a few things to test tomorrow and so I hope I am able to improve on today’s performance.”
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
Rea And Sykes Lead The Friday Field
Under clear skies the 12th round of the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship got underway at Jerez with Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes (KRT) ending the opening day in first and second places respectively on the timesheets.
After FP1 Jonathan Rea was a clear leader on pace and he maintained a strong advantage even after suffering a fall in the early stages of the afternoon FP2 session.
Jonathan was able to return to action at a high pace after taking to the track again for the last part of FP2, but it was his remarkable morning lap time of 1’40.291 that put him 0.597 seconds ahead of his team-mate Sykes in the final Friday rankings.
Still recovering from left little finger and hand injuries Sykes worked his way into the Jerez race weekend, eventually finishing second fastest and making progress all through Friday’s two hours of track time at the 4.423km long circuit in the south of Spain.
Tom set a personal best lap time of 1’40.888 on the recently resurfaced Jerez circuit late this afternoon and headed up a five rider group that was separated by just 0.008 seconds.
The KRT riders will now lead today’s top 10 qualifiers into Superpole 2 where final grid positions for the first race on Saturday will be determined.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “The bike worked well today. We made a long stop in the first pit stop this morning, understood the bike and made some good changes. I then went out and I felt confident with the bike. Step by step we are getting into an area where we can start to use the softer rear tyre, and that is fine. We need to understand the front tyres a bit more now. I had a strange crash, only on my second lap this afternoon, not doing anything silly. So it caught me off guard a little bit. We need to understand the data more. The bike was quickly fixed and we were able to get 20 solid minutes of track time in at the end, which were important.”
Tom Sykes, stated: “We are just fine-tuning the bike set-up and getting things sorted, so we improved our pace towards the end of the second session. I can go to bed tonight fairly satisfied with the work we have done. Our improvements today were a bit of a setting thing, a bit of a rider thing, and we did a lot of laps to understand things. I still cannot force the bike in some areas like I would like to, but even with this injury I feel I am still able to do the job. In the end we put in the tyres we normally use for a race and tried something closer to our race set-up. The lap times are pretty close behind me and a lot of riders set similar pace.”
More, from a press release issued by Aruba.it Racing Ducati:
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team back to work in Jerez: Melandri and Davies respectively 5th and 10th in Friday’s practice sessions
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team resumed action at Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), home of the penultimate round of the 2017 WorldSBK Championship. In sunny weather conditions with temperatures increasing throughout the day – and, consequently, a decreasing grip on track – several top riders posted their best lap times in FP1. Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies were no exception, clocking respectively a 1:40.893 and a 1:41.204 in the morning, which granted them fifth (+0.602) and tenth (+0.913) position in the combined rankings.
Both the Italian and the Welshman were still determined to try a “time attack” in FP2 after focusing initially on tyre wear, but technical issues prevented them from improving their lap times. Melandri and Davies nonetheless gained direct access to Superpole 2. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will resume action tomorrow at 08:45 local time (CET) for FP3 in preparation of Superpole and Race 1, which is scheduled to start at 13:00 local time.
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #33) – 1:40.893 (5th)
“Today we had one of our best Fridays of the year, despite some technical issues that slowed us down a bit. It’s never ideal to finish one session in the gravel, but the team really did a great job and the Panigale R seems to be quite competitive. The new tarmac surely helps as it’s less bumpy than the previous one, but it’s also difficult to interpret as grip seems to change from one lap to another. It’s not easy to be consistent over the race distance. It’ll be crucial to do a strong Superpole and start at the front to play our best cards in the second half of the race.”
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 1:41.204 (10th)
“This morning we just tried to get acquainted with the new tarmac, which basically means a new track, while in FP2 we got out on used tires to test a couple of changes to our setup but unfortunately we had a technical issue that resulted in a pretty awkward crash. Luckily I’m all right, I took a few bangs but nothing too serious. Overall, we didn’t have an ideal day but I’m confident we’ll bounce back tomorrow. We’ll just have more work to do in FP3, but I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
More, from a press release issued by Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team:
Giugliano and Takahashi with some work to do after opening day at Jerez
Spanish Round
Circuito de Jerez, Spain
Day one of the Spanish WorldSBK Round of 2017 has drawn to a close for the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team, with Davide Giugliano and Takumi Takahashi 17th and 20th, respectively, in the combined times of today’s two practice sessions at ‘Circuito de Jerez’. Both riders will therefore take part in tomorrow’s Superpole 1 with the goal to advance to the second and final qualifying session.
Davide Giugliano had a steady start to the day as he got to grips with the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 around the fast-flowing 4.423 Km Andalusian track, which has been recently resurfaced. It took some time for the 27-year-old to find the right feeling with the bike, but in the final stages of FP2 he was able to improve on his morning’s lap time by 1.2secs after logging a 1’42.218 time with two minutes to go before the chequered flag was deployed.
Takumi Takahashi jumped back on the WorldSBK-spec version of the Fireblade for the first time since his series debut at Portimão five weeks ago. The Japanese rider worked hard with his crew to adjust back to a different machines and tyres he is used to racing at home, and to reacquaint himself with the circuit, where he has tested previously.
World Superbike action at Jerez will resume tomorrow morning at 8:45 local time (GMT +2) with Free Practice 3, which will be followed by Superpole 1 (10:30) and Race 1 (13:00).
Davide Giugliano 34
17th
It took us quite a bit of time to find some direction today because apparently the settings we found at Magny-Cours did not really work here, and back-to-back evaluation did not give us the results we were looking for. We tried many changes and that meant I could not stay out on track for as long as I would have liked. In the end we were able to improve a little so I hope tomorrow we will be able to continue in the right direction. The 15 minutes of Superpole 1 could turn out to be in our favour tomorrow.
Takumi Takahashi 72
20th
It was good to get back on track without having to learn my way around it, so the start of the day was quite positive for me. I was looking to improve further, but with the temperature rise we switched to the softer tyre compound, which I never tried before, so it took me a while to get use to its behaviour. I obviously wished we were further up in the timesheets, but now we know what to do so it’ll be easier to improve tomorrow.
Ronald ten Kate
Team Manager
We did not expect such a slow start to the day, but unfortunately the set-up we found in France did not suit this track for Davide. We had to try different things before we could find a direction, but we eventually did find it so we are now looking forward to tomorrow, and I’m confident we can make up some ground to the top. Takumi continues to build up experience in the championship: it’s only his second WorldSBK event of his career and, despite knowing the track already, he needs some more time on the bike and on Pirelli tyres before he can find the right feeling with the package. He’s getting there, though.
More, from a press release issued by Pata Yamaha:
Pata Yamaha Show Potential on Friday in Jerez
Free practice
After securing a sensational double podium last time out in Magny-Cours the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team once again demonstrated their competitiveness as they enjoyed a great start to the penultimate round of the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship on a glorious Friday at Jerez. Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes were almost inseparable as only 0.001s split the teammates on the overall timesheets at the end of the day, with van der Mark finishing in third and Lowes fourth as both riders secured their places in SP2.
Van der Mark has a great relationship with the Jerez circuit, having secured a podium in WorldSBK last year at the track and winning the WorldSSP race at the track in 2014. It was a stunning sunny day in Southern Spain and the Dutch rider continued the rich vein of form that has seen him record two podiums in the last three races as he immediately looked competitive in FP1, setting a 1:41.102 to sit in fifth on the timesheets at the end of the session. The 24-year-old Dutch rider tried out some different tyre variations in the afternoon’s FP2 session, before reverting to the softer option rear for the final few minutes, with the 2014 WorldSSP Champion going out on fresh rubber and managing to improve to a 1:40.890 on his 22nd lap of 26, which was good enough for him to secure third on the overall timesheets, just +0.599s off the pace of the leading rider.
Lowes immediately took a liking to the new track surface at Jerez, one of his favourite circuits, as he shot into second on the timesheets with a 1:41.637 on just his fifth lap in FP1. Battling at the top of the timesheets for the entire session, the 27-year-old British rider improved late on to a 1:40.890 to end the morning in second. As the temperatures rose in the afternoon and confident with his one-lap pace, Lowes decided to focus on race pace in FP2. The 2013 British Superbike Champion ran a 21-lap race simulation, showing incredible consistency and collecting valuable data for his team in the hot conditions at Jerez, setting a best time of 1:41.244 in the session. Lowes ended the day in fourth overall with his time from FP1, just one-thousandths of a second behind his teammate, and just 0.002s off the rider in second.
The Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team will return to action on Saturday at the Circuito de Jerez at 8.45 am local time for FP3, with qualifying starting at 10:30 am and the 20-lap Race 1 at 13:00 pm. Check out the full results.
Michael van der Mark
Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team – 3rd – 1:40.890
“I am really happy with P3 today! This morning we started off with our base setting and improved and improved, although it was quite difficult because the track was dirty. We didn’t change anything before FP2, as we wanted to see the condition of the track, so I went out this afternoon and did some okay lap times. We then tried the harder tyres but they didn’t feel very good so we went back to the softer option and changed some setting with the front of the bike which meant I was fast again and during the last few laps I improved my time. I am really happy with the bike as we didn’t change it at all and we were fast and very consistent, so I am happy. It has been a long time since we have had weather like this, so we are enjoying it but it could make it difficult for the tyres to last race distance. It will be interesting tomorrow, I think we have a good pace and we found a good setup to work with the tyres. We won’t make many changes, maybe some small ones, but I have felt good since we first arrived so I don’t want to change too much, we will just look at trying to improve our consistency. The new tarmac is amazing, it was just unlucky the rain during the last couple of days made it dirty, but it is so smooth and they have taken out all of the bumps. They did an amazing job which shows in the lap times because everyone is really fast!”
Alex Lowes
Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team – 4th – 1:40.891
“I felt quite good today! I was a little concerned before about how the bike would react to the new surface here at Jerez but the R1 is working really well. There are still a couple of things I want to improve for tomorrow but I would say it has been a really successful first day and I am looking forward to qualifying and Race 1 tomorrow. We do so many laps at Jerez during the winter that if they change one thing about the track, we notice it straight away. I think the changes have been positive and they did a fantastic job, it wasn’t that bumpy before, but now it is great, which is always really nice. We just need to make a few small changes and we will be ready for tomorrow. I think the key for fighting at the front tomorrow could be down to consistency. Today the tyres dropped off quite a lot on the new surface, but that should change as the weekend goes on and the track will get better and better. Today I felt good, we will try and improve the bike a bit overnight and hopefully tomorrow I can fight at the front!”
Paul Denning
Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team Principal
“It’s nice to be in Jerez with such beautiful weather for late October and despite some concerns regarding one or two parts of the new asphalt, in fact, there has been no problems either with the surface itself or tyre durability. We have had another very strong Friday and it demonstrates how much progress Yamaha, the team, and the riders have made in terms of developing and improving the WorldSBK R1. Alex did a 21-lap run this afternoon which is always fantastic preparation for the race and gives his guys very detailed data to work on in terms of improving and trying those improvements in FP3 tomorrow morning. Michael also did a medium-length run and improved his pace significantly at the end of FP2, meaning that both Pata Yamaha R1s look very competitive and if all goes well, in what looks like it will be a very close battle for the podium, hopefully, our guys will be a part of it.”