Motul FIM Superbike World Championship

Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy

April 29, 2016

Free Practice Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):

1. Chaz DAVIES, UK (Ducati Panigale R), 1:47.014

2. Tom SYKES, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:47.347

3. Jonathan REA, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:47.444

4. Markus REITERBERGER, Germany (BMW S1000RR), 1:47.949

5. Leon CAMIER, UK (MV Agusta F4 RC), 1:48.067

6. Jordi TORRES, Spain (BMW S1000RR), 1:48.077

7. Sylvain GUINTOLI, France (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:48.342, crash

8. Matteo BAIOCCO, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), 1:48.519

9. Lorenzo SAVADORI, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:48.520

10. Alex LOWES, UK (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:48.600

11. Davide GIUGLIANO, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), 1:48.682

12. Xavi FORÉS, Spain (Ducati Panigale R), 1:48.778

13. Roman RAMOS, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:49.143, crash

14. Josh BROOKES, Australia (BMW S1000RR), 1:49.239

15. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (Honda CBR1000RR SP), 1:49.364

16. Michael VAN DER MARK, Netherlands (Honda CBR1000RR SP), 1:49.416

17. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:49.649

18. Lucas MAHIAS, France (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:49.695

19. Dominic SCHMITTER, Switzerland (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:51.062

20. Peter SEBESTYÉN, Hungary (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:51.564

21. Saeed AL SULAITI, Qatar (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:52.497

22. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (BMW S1000RR), 1:52.712

23. Pawel SZKOPEK, Poland (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:52.808

24. Josh HOOK, Australia (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:54.025

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

WorldSBK: Davies on Top on Day 1 at Imola

Ducati rider flies the home flag for Italian manufacturer at home

Chaz Davies remained on top of the timesheets at the end of FP2 on Friday, with a 1’47.014 seeing him head Kawasaki Racing Team riders Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea. After a morning session interrupted by a red flag, FP2 was completed without stoppage for entry to Tissot-Superpole 2 to be decided. Tom Sykes did suffer a problem during the second session that saw the Kawasaki rider forced to return to the pits, but after moving from P8 in FP1 to P2 in FP2, the Yorkshireman will easily go through to Superpole 2.

The first session of the day was red-flagged due to track conditions, with oil on the track from an incident with 35 minutes on the clock when Kawasaki rider Tom Sykes was the pacesetter. Once cleared, practice resumed some minutes later as the pit lane reopened at 11:05 local time (GMT +2), with Chaz Davies then taking almost four tenths off Sykes’ time as he started a run of continually faster laps, eventually setting a 1’47.517 that saw him top the morning session by half a second from MV Agusta rider Leon Camier.

Camier was another local hero of sorts as the Brit kept MV Agusta’s great morning form in the second session, maintaining the position of the improving bike high up the timesheets in P5, but 4th overall on combined results. Markus Reiterberger was another rider who impressed in the afternoon after a steady and solid start for Althea BMW on Friday morning, with the German moving up to P4 in the second session and fifth overall. His teammate Jordi Torres also moved up the timesheets in FP2 into P6, with the Catalan rider taking eight tenths off his time from the morning.

IodaRacing’s Lorenzo Savadori remained the fastest Italian on Friday thanks to his time in FP1, and also remained in the top ten in FP2, ending the session in P9 on his Aprilia and P7 overall. Compatriot Davide Giugliano, on the second Aruba.it Racing – Ducati machine, was 11th in FP2 but gains entry to Tissot-Superpole 2 from his earlier lap time that puts him in P9 on the combined list. Matteo Baiocco, riding as replacement for injured Fabio Menghi at VFT, ended his fantastic Friday with direct entry to Superpole 2 as 10th quickest overall, and was the quickest Italian in the second practice session. With extra home motivation, each can be satisfied with the first day on track and the chance to go for more glory in both Tissot-Superpole and Race 1 on Saturday.

Sylvain Guintoli, despite a small crash near the end of the second session, made sure to get his Pata Yamaha into Superpole 2 and improved his lap time from the morning to end FP2 in P7; ending the day 8th on the combined timesheets as the YZF R1 starts to feel at home in WorldSBK. Teammate Alex Lowes also ended the second practice session inside the top ten, but just lost out on the chance to graduate straight to Superpole 2 and will be fighting to move through Superpole 1 alongside Honda riders Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden.

Honda Official WorldSBK Team had a difficult first day at Imola. Number 69 Nicky Hayden is a rookie at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari however, and teammate Michael van der Mark has so far proven one of the most consistent frontrunners in the paddock, so with a great podium record so far in the season, there is progress sure to be found before the points are awarded.

Tissot-Superpole gets underway on Saturday 30th of April at 10:30am local time (GMT +2), as the riders look to fight for a place on the grid ahead of lights out for Race 1 at 13:00.

More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

Chaz Davies tops Friday’s free practice sessions in Imola, Davide Giugliano in ninth position

The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team kicked off the fifth round of the WorldSBK championship in style in Imola, topping the time sheets with Chaz Davies, who posted the provisional best time during the Friday’s free practice sessions. After taking the lead in the morning, Davies confirmed his competitiveness during FP2, improving his lap times by almost four tenths of a second and clocking 16 laps with an encouraging pace in race configuration. Davies finished day one with a personal best of 1:47.014, 0.333 seconds faster than his closest opponent Tom Sykes.

Davide Giugliano’s campaign started more a few more difficulties than expected. The Italian posted the ninth best time with a 1:48.384, 1.370 seconds behind his teammate. Giugliano, who only used one rear tyre until the half-way point of FP2 to optimize the work on the race setup, could not find the anticipated improvements on fresh tyres after clocking the fifth best lap in FP1. Both riders gained direct access to Superpole 2, scheduled for 10:55 (CET) Saturday.

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 1:47.014 (1st)

“Given that this is only day one, we certainly can’t compain about our performance. I felt comfortable on the Panigale R since the very first exit, and the bike has been immediately more competitive on this track than last year. In the afternoon, we worked on the gearbox and managed to make further improvements, and I was also able to make a couple of longer runs with a quite constant rhythm. I tried two rear-tyre options, both of which seem to work. The choice will depend on the strategy one wants to adopt during the race. Anyways, it’s only Friday and we need to keep working. There are still a few tenths of a second up for grabs out there.”

Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) – 1:48.384 (9th)

“This track has suited me well in the past, but unfortunately we weren’t able to make the necessary steps forward today. I still can’t ride the way I want to, but for sure we’re not giving up, as we know we have the necessary tools to climb back. We simply have our work cut out for us. Unfortunately we won’t have much time to evaluate further changes before the race but, together with the team, we’ll think of all options, leaving no stone unturned. It will be very important to start strong tomorrow during FP3 to make a good Superpole, then anything can happen during the race.”

More, from a press release issued by MV Agusta:

MV AGUSTA REPARTO CORSE RIDERS TO ACCESS THE SUPERPOLE 2 IN IMOLA 

29 APRIL 2016

The historic Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit located in the heart of the town of Imola in northern Italy plays host to the 5th round of the 2016 MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship with MV Agusta Reparto Corse keen to put the difficulties of the Dutch round at Assen behind.

In the premier class Leon Camier finished 2° the FP1 manche with a 1’47.943 time lap, the only one to goes under the 1’48 along with the top list rider Chaz Davis. In FP2 the British rider tried to make the most of the excellent setup of his MV Agusta F4 RC machine through the 4,936 km long Italian track. At the end of the day, Camier got the 4° best time in the combined result and tomorrow he will fight in the Tissot-Superpole2.

In WorldSSP Jules Cluzel got the 2nd time in FP1, while his teammate Lorenzo Zanetti closed 4th shortly after the French rider; in FP2, after having battled a long in the top 10 without using the soft tyre, the MV Agusta duo took home the entrance to Tissot-Superpole 2, conquering respectively the 5th and 8th place in the combined time sheets.

Leon Camier #2 – It was a very good day. We started with a very good setting, which is very important. We had to work a little bit with the electronic but in the end we are really happy. There’s no much time to make the changes and tomorrow it will be very important to have a good qualifying to be ready for the race. Thanks to all my squad for the great job today.

Jules Cluzel #16 – Definitely a positive day, especially after the previous round in Assen. We found out the solution to a problem that has affected us both in Aragon and Assen and we are already working on it. Here in Imola we are showing a really good pace and I’m pretty sure I can fight for the pole tomorrow, because we still have not used the soft tyre while all the other riders already did it. Tomorrow the weather says rain and this could change the situation but we can be satisfied of what we did in dry condition.

Lorenzo Zanetti #87 – I must say it was a good start this morning, both for the 4th place, both for the good bike setup. Today I tried a race simulation and it wasn’t bad at all, we have just to work a little bit on braking. Now we must analyze the data we got today and try to make a good time in Superpole2 tomorrow. I am sure that if we improve on the single lap, we can also improve on the race pace.

More, from a press release issued by Honda:

Honda WorldSBK duo looking for more at Imola

Round 5 – Italy

Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Italy

It was a challenging opening day of action for the Honda WorldSBK Team at Imola’s ‘Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari’ today, where the fifth round of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship is currently underway. At the end of Friday’s two one-hour long free practice sessions, Michael van der Mark ended up 14th while Nicky Hayden, who did his first laps of the Italian track on his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP, was 16th at the chequered flag of FP2. Therefore, unlike every other race so far this year, both riders will have to take part into Superpole 1 tomorrow.

Van der Mark and his crew worked hard to find a base set-up for the Dutchman’s Fireblade machine on the Italian track, which was partially resurfaced over the winter in two areas: from the uphill section leading to to ‘Acque Minerali’ (turns 10 and 11) to the ‘Variante Alta’ (turn 14) and between the two ‘Rivazza’ corners (turns 18 and 19) to the pit lane entrance. With today’s data to analyse, the team will plan further changes to the settings of the bike, which will be evaluated during tomorrow morning’s 15-minute FP3 – scheduled at 8:45.

Nicky Hayden had his first taste of the iconic Italian track, which lived up to its fame of being a difficult one to learn. The American was able to set his fastest time of the day with a couple of minutes left in today’s action and he is now looking forward to trying some new settings ahead of Superpole.

Michael van der Mark 60

14th / 1.49.166

I would lie if I say I’m happy with how things have gone today. It looks like we have yet to find the key to be quick on this track and this has certainly put us on the back foot somewhat, because so far this year we have always been competitive right from the off. I have a feeling we have been skirting around the problems today, but I’m confident that the guys will find a way to make the bike work as well as it did before.

Nicky Hayden 69

16th / 1’49.364

Overall it hasn’t been a positive day. Learning such a difficult track with this many elevation changes is never easy, plus there have been many little things that haven’t gone our way. Because of all this we couldn’t build any rhythm and make progress, and so now we have to try and make our way through Superpole 1. It’s really hard to tell how much is me being new here, or the bike set-up, because even Michael had his own struggles today. Right now, all we need to do is to get it together and refocus for tomorrow; hopefully we’ll be able to turn things around.

Pieter Breddels

Technical Manager

We’re obviously not happy with today’s results as we were expecting to be much higher up the timing sheets. We are now analysing the data gathered today but it seems that for some reason we struggled to find a setup that could give us a good grip around this track, and that applies to both riders. Of course, for Nicky it was also his first day of action here, which didn’t help. We now have a bit of time to go through everything in order to get a fresh start tomorrow morning.

More, from a press release issued by Althea Racing BMW:

Smooth sailing for the Althea BMW Racing Team on day one at Imola

Imola (Italy), Friday 29 April 2016:

A positive first day for the Althea BMW Racing team on track at Imola for its first ‘home’ race of the season. SBK riders Markus Reiterberger and Jordi Torres qualified in fifth and sixth place for tomorrow’s Superpole 2, while Stock1000 rider Raffaele De Rosa dominated the free practices to finish first overall.

Torres and Reiterberger took to the track this morning for the first timed practice, using the first half of the hour-long session to get to grips with the track and build confidence, particularly Markus who has not raced here since 2012. During the second half of the session, the young German was able to make a good step to close with a best of 1’48.874 in ninth place. Spanish rider Jordi completed the session right behind his team-mate, tenth, thanks to a time of 1’48.880.

During the afternoon, both Althea BMW riders were able to make significant progress, identifying an effective set-up for their BMW S1000 RR bikes. Times dropped dramatically, with the pair lapping almost a second quicker than during the morning, to set respective best times of 1’47.949 (Reiterberger) and 1’48.077 (Torres), closing in fifth and sixth place and easily qualifying for tomorrow’s SP2.

In the Stock 1000 free practice sessions, current championship leader De Rosa immediately made his presence felt, lapping with consistently fast times in both of the day’s sessions. His best lap of the morning – a 1’52.801, achieved in damp conditions – put him up into second, while during the afternoon he was able to really show his potential, setting the fastest overall time, 1’49.388, to finish first.

Markus Reiterberger:

“I’m pleased. I’m really enjoying riding the bike here and fifth place is a good result for day one. The lap times are not so bad either; we’ve completed a decent long run and I was pretty happy with the pace. Then with new tyres and small change to the set-up, I was also able to set a good fast lap. It took me a little time this morning to find a good feeling with the track, and the bike, as I haven’t been here since 2012 but I’m feeling good, also because I think we still have room for improvement tomorrow.”

Jordi Torres:

“At this point of the championship, we’re trying to find the bike’s limit, having accumulated a lot of information over previous weekends. Let’s say that we’re making lots of very small changes to improve the bike. This afternoon, I felt more confident and could push harder, which allowed me to set a fast time. There are still points of the track where we can improve, through the Variante Alta and Variante Bassa for example, because I struggle, with my particular riding style, with the changes of direction through the tight turns.”

More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:

Top Three Qualifying Positions For KRT Runners After Imola Day One

At the fifth round of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship at Imola in Italy Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea were second and third fastest respectively on their all-new Ninja ZX-10R machines after the first day of qualifying had been completed.

Although he lost some track time due to technical issues with his rear brake in the second one-hour long practice session today, Sykes improved his previous morning session best time with a 1’47.347. This put him second, and 0.097 seconds ahead of his team-mate Jonathan Rea, with one more 15 minute practice session and then Superpole qualifying to come later for both KRT riders.

Sykes could not get a planned long run/race simulation completed this afternoon but is confident that his machine set-up is already good, with just some final adjustments to be done in Saturday’s short third practice session.

With more track time available to him on Friday Rea completed a long run and will now make some small adjustments before Superpole on Saturday, which will be followed shortly afterwards by the first race of the weekend.

Rea and Sykes will hope to get their winning totals moving on again in Italy, starting on Saturday in race one and then finishing with the second race, which will be held on Sunday 1st May.

Dry weather conditions blessed the 4.936km long circuit all through day one’s practice sessions, despite some darker clouds appearing overhead at times.

Tom Sykes stated: “It was good to get second place in the time sheets, even though we had two problems with the rear brake. This also disturbed our pace but we have potential and for this I am happy. When I had the issue in the second run I was a little bit nervous but we still improved our lap time. I am happy with that. Overall I wanted to put a long run together but I think the bike is quote close to where we wanted to be. This is something positive. To improve the lap time in the afternoon session means that, all things considered, we have to be happy that we are second fastest. Chaz Davies has been unbelievably fast so we need to pay attention to that and see if tomorrow we can improve the bike a little bit over distance. I feel we are close enough to start race one now.”

Jonathan Rea stated: “We did a long run and we are working step-by-step this weekend, not making too many massive changes. We have been concentrating on electronics with Paolo. Both Paolo and Danilo, the other electronics engineer, have worked really strongly to give us a good engine brake strategy that we are developing. Today felt like a lot of testing had been done, so to put a race simulation on top of that gives a lot of information to help fine tune things. It looks like we can improve even further with that information and I am quite happy. I feel I have a got good rhythm and tomorrow is the big job. I felt like we ticked the boxes and we tried two options of race tyres. For me I feel quite clear that one of them will work better. It has been a good day and we really needed the track to be dry. I am making good progress and there are quite a few areas where we feel we can improve. Today we learned a lot.”

Roman Ramos (Go Eleven Team Kawasaki) qualified 13th on the opening day at Imola, with stand-in rider Lucas Mahias (Pedercini Racing Team Kawasaki) once more substituting for the injured Sylvain Barrier, and going 18th fastest. Ramos was later declared unfit because of a fall and fracture to his first left metacarpus. Dominic Schmitter (Grillini Racing Team Kawasaki) placed 19th. Saeed Al Sulaiti (Pedercini Racing Team Kawasaki) was 21st and Josh Hook (Grillini Racing Team Kawasaki) 24th.

More, from a press release issued by Yamaha-Racing.com:

Race Day Preparation Friday’s Focus for Pata Yamaha

Free practice

Sylvain Guintoli and Alex Lowes got straight down to business at Imola’s Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari today as the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team focused it’s concentration on preparing for the first of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship’s fifth round races. Having already proved over recent events that their WorldSBK-spec YZF-R1’s have the pace to qualify well, the two Yamaha riders concentrated on long runs and tyre wear management for the majority of Friday’s free practice concluding the two hour-long sessions in eighth and eleventh places respectively.

Confident with his machine’s one-lap pace, after his consecutive front row qualifying performances at Aragon and Assen, Guintoli turned his attention to strategy and management for the opening sessions at the iconic Italian track. Notorious as one of the most technical on the WorldSBK calendar, the 4,936m undulating layout provided the perfect challenge to fine-tune his YZF-R1’s set-up. Leaving his fast runs until the closing stages of this afternoon’s free practice, the Frenchman unfortunately fell at the final chicane, failing to complete his best lap of the day and convert his projected P4 position. His earlier 1’48.342 time, however, remained enough to secure his top-ten classification and promotion into Saturday’s Superpole 2 ahead of the 19-lap race at 13:00 local time.

Lowes concluded his first two free practice sessions at Imola narrowly missing out on automatic Superpole qualification by just 0.081 seconds. The British rider also spent Friday working through a detailed development programme, his consecutive set of fastest times coming early in the afternoon session. Missing out on a 1’48.0 best due to narrowly cutting the final chicane, Lowes’ 1’48.600 lap, recorded on his third revolution, puts the 25-year-old in 11th place in the combined times and joining the early qualifying battle at 10:30 local time tomorrow morning.

Sylvain Guintoli

8th / 1’48.342 / 32 laps

“A small crash in my fastest lap at the end of the session was disappointing but we are still firmly in the top ten for Superpole tomorrow so this is a positive. We have been continuing to work on the race development for the majority of today as this is the main area we still need to improve. We will keep working tomorrow but, for me, I just need to get my head down, push hard and let the technicians do their job! The solutions we are looking for are very difficult to pinpoint but I have confidence that we will get there.”

Alex Lowes

11th / 1’48.600 / 34 laps

“A difficult day for us to be honest, I love this track but everything has to be working in harmony to allow us to chip away and find the best rhythm and that was quite difficult today. I had a small crash at the end of the morning session which didn’t help but my main focus was to improve the performance on worn tyres. I felt quite good this afternoon until we reached about eight or nine laps and then we started to struggle a bit. We could do with another Friday to improve further before the first race really but I’m positive that the team, and myself, can make a decent step tomorrow morning and we will keep pushing for where we know we should be.”

Paul Denning – Team Principal

“After the inconsistent weather at Assen and knowing the very technical character of the Imola Circuit we expected day one to be challenging here for the WorldSBK-specification YZF-R1 and so it has proved. We didn’t see the potential best lap of either rider with Alex’s best of a high ’47 being cancelled due to a very small infringement at the last chicane and Sylvain crashing at the same corner when he was on schedule for third or fourth position. So, as we have seen at recent events, the ultimate lap time for both riders is there, but on both sides of the garage we are still searching for consistency on used tyres and to avoid a big lap-time drop once the grip reduces. There is very little time to prepare tomorrow before the first race but everybody is committed to making big improvements overnight.”