Motul FIM Superbike World Championship
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Monterey, California, USA
July 8, 2016
Free Practice Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):
1. Chaz DAVIES, UK (Ducati Panigale R), 1:23.622
2. Jonathan REA, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:23.696
3. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (Honda CBR1000RR SP), 1:23.866
4. Tom SYKES, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:23.891
5. Davide GIUGLIANO, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), 1:23.978
6. Jordi TORRES, Spain (BMW S1000RR), 1:24.022
7. Lorenzo SAVADORI, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:24.106, crash
8. Xavi FORÉS, Spain (Ducati Panigale R), 1:24.130
9. Niccolo CANEPA, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:24.310
10. Alex LOWES, UK (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:24.333, crash
11. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:24.333
12. Leon CAMIER, UK (MV Agusta 1000 F4), 1:24.504
13. Michael VAN DER MARK, Netherlands (Honda CBR1000RR SP), 1:24.561
14. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (BMW S1000RR), 1:25.066
15. Raffaele DE ROSA, Italy (BMW S1000RR), 1:25.210
16. Anthony WEST, Australia (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:25.212
17. Josh BROOKES, Australia (BMW S1000RR), 1:25.246
18. Roman RAMOS, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:25.269
19. Dominic SCHMITTER, Switzerland (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:26.281
20. Fabio MENGHI, Italy (Duc Panigale R), 1:27.193
21. Saeed AL SULAITI, Qatar (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:27.501
22. Pawel SZKOPEK, Poland (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:27.548, crashed twice
23. Gianluca VIZZIELLO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-10R), no time recorded/mechanical
24. Peter SEBESTYEN, Hungary (Yamaha YZF-R1), no time recorded
More, from a press release issued by Dorna WSBK Press Office:
Laguna Seca: Day 1
Davies Sets the Benchmark
– Aruba.it Ducati rider quickest out the blocks in California –
Aruba.it Racing – Ducati rider Chaz Davies owned the timesheets on Day 1 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, as the Welshman returned to the track on which he did the double last year to lay down a marker as he gets ready to attack the second half of the season. Kawasaki Racing Team rider Jonathan Rea ended the day second quickest with two sessions as a frontrunner on Friday, ahead of local hero Nicky Hayden on the Honda Fireblade, who moved up from P12 to P3 in the last few impressive minutes of the session.
KRT rider Tom Sykes was bumped out the top three in the last dash after having had a more difficult morning session but ended the day in P4, ahead of FP1’s fastest man Alex Lowes, who rounded out the top 5 for Pata Yamaha. Davide Giugliano finished up P6 as the Italian returns to a track with some difficult memories after a crash last year sidelined him for many Rounds of the season, ahead of Althea BMW rider Jordi Torres in P7.
Lorenzo Savadori was impressive in P8 for IodaRacing Aprilia, ahead of Xavi Forés for Barni Racing on the Panigale R, who ended the day in P9. Niccolo Canepa continued stand in duties for Sylvain Guintoli with another good showing to round out the top 10 for Pata Yamaha.
Honda rider Michael van der Mark, after spending most of the morning session at the front, was the casualty of the last minute dash as the Dutchman ended Day 1 in P11 and just missed out on direct entry into Tissot-Superpole 2. Alex De Angelis was P12 on the second IodaRacing machine, ahead of MV Agusta’s Leon Camier, Milwaukee BMW’s Karel Abraham and second Althea BMW rider Raffaele de Rosa, who is riding at Laguna Seca for the first time as a replacement for injured Markus Reiterberger.
Entry to Tissot-Superpole 2 is now decided for the top ten, with the last two spots in the fight for the top 12 places on the grid up for grabs through the Superpole 1 session on Saturday. With a closely packed field, it’s sure to be an explosive battle in qualifying ahead of the two WorldSBK races of the weekend: the lights go out at 14:30 local time (GMT -7) on both Saturday and Sunday as the fight for 50 points begins once again.
Laguna Seca: Day 1
Words and Pictures
– The best images and quotes from the first day of track action in California –
Ducati’s Chaz Davies headed the timesheets on Day 1
Kentucky Kid Nicky Hayden was in the top 3 on Day 1 at home
P1 – Chaz Davies @ChazDavies
Aruba.it Racing – Ducati @ArubaRacing
“Being fastest at the end of the first day is always good but we know it doesn’t count for a lot come tomorrow! But so far so good, it seems like we’re on good pace from the first laps and we’re just chipping away. I think we can improve a bit for tomorrow too, and that’s what I’m happiest about.”
P2 – Jonathan Rea @jonathanrea
Kawasaki Racing Team @KRT_WorldSBK
“I feel even better than last year. The good feeling from Misano has continued here so I’m quite happy. The track is lacking a bit of grip, after many laps on the tyre I suffer a little bit with the entry traction but it’s been a pain free first day. I gave constant effort every lap so we should have good data to put it together and use it tomorrow.”
P3 – Nicky Hayden @NickyHayden
Honda World Superbike Team @HondaWSBK
“To be honest, it hasn’t been as smooth as I’d hoped – you know you always hope everything’s just going to go smooth! We’ve had a few more problems than I’d hoped this week with electronics, trying to get all the sections to work in the right way, and it’s been a bit frustrating but there at the end we put in new tyres but I cut it a little close to improve my laptime. We’re going to attack Superpole tomorrow!”
More, from a press release issued by Althea BMW:
Seventh for Torres and Althea BMW in SBK timed practice at Laguna Seca
Monterey (USA), Friday 8 July 2016
The two timed practice sessions making up day one of the World Superbike action at the Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway took place today in dry conditions, with the Althea BMW Racing team on track with riders Jordi Torres and Raffaele De Rosa.
During the morning, Jordi Torres, having completed a few laps in which he refamiliarised himself with the American track, almost immediately moved up into the top five. Proving to be at his ease at Laguna, he recorded a series of solid laps. A red flag unfortunately interrupted the session three minutes from the end, after which there was time to make just one final lap. For Jordi this proved to be his best lap of the session – 1’24.829 – which put him in eighth place at the session’s end.
Raffaele De Rosa, standing in for injured team-mate Markus Reiterberger this weekend, spent session one getting to grips with both his BMW S 1000 RR and the track itself, a new experience for the young Italian. Improving on his performance during the 60-minute session, Raffaele’s fastest lap, a 1’26.459, saw him finish 17th.
Later in the day, in the second timed session, De Rosa made a good step forward in the early stages, and was able to lower his time by more than a second. Thanks to a best time of 1’25.210, he concluded day one in fifteenth position and will take part in tomorrow’s Superpole 1.
Torres too was able to improve both his lap times and position, particularly in the second half of the session, to finish in seventh place (1’24.022) and therefore qualifying directly for Superpole 2.
Jordi Torres:
“In the morning the team and I worked well, and understood right away which set-up we should use. There were still some things to sort out though so in the afternoon we tried to make some modifications in order to have a more stable, calmer and less ‘aggressive’ bike. We’re not doing badly in terms of lap times but we know we have the capacity to shave off another three or four tenths. So our work will continue tomorrow!”
Raffaele De Rosa:
“My first impression of the track this morning is that it is beautiful but also really tough. In the afternoon session I definitely already felt more comfortable. The track is short and so we’re all quite close in terms of times. Anyway, as a first experience I’m really pleased to be here and I knew that it would definitely be a challenge… We’ll do our best to continue to make progress tomorrow.”
More, from a press release issued by Pata Yamaha:
Leading Morning for Lowes at Laguna Seca
Alex Lowes started his American adventure in the best way possible this morning, by leading the opening WorldSBK free practice times at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca before completing Friday in fifth position overall. Teammate Niccolò Canepa also impressed as he began his second outing on the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK YZF-R1, finishing inside the top ten and joining Lowes with direct qualification into tomorrow’s Superpole 2.
Lowes began the morning with a quick exploration lap before returning to the pits for set-up work. Instantly hitting the top five on his return to the track, the British rider continued his evaluation and progression. Setting a top-three time at the half way stage with a 1’24.9, he swiftly followed it by claiming second with a 1’24.693 on the next lap. A red flag situation with just three minutes to go brought a delay to the session’s close but with the green light returning, Lowes made the most of the sprint finish. His fastest lap of the day, a 1’23.912, saw him lead the times for the morning session and allowed him to retain his top-five position at the close of play – despite a crash 20 minutes into the afternoon calling time early on his free practice action.
Getting up to speed quickly at the Californian circuit, Canepa sat fourth in the times after the morning’s opening laps, consistently improving his times and sitting within the top-ten as the session developed. Returning to the track for the remaining eight minutes, having concentrated on setting’s evaluations with his Pata Yamaha crew, the Italian rider was on for a top-five lap time before the session was red flagged. Regrouping for the closing moments, he set a 1’24.814 on his final revolution to end the session seventh and eager to continue into the afternoon. Working through chassis adjustments to allow greater rear grip and front feel, Canepa concluded the final hour-long free practice in tenth, improving his time to 1’24.310.
The Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team returns to the Laguna Seca track tomorrow morning for a final 15 minute free practice at 09:15 local time. Qualifying begins for both Lowes and Canepa at 11:55 with Saturday’s second Superpole shootout, ahead of the weekend’s first 25-lap race at 14:30.
Alex Lowes
5th / 1’23.912 / 32 laps
“This afternoon was disappointing as I had a small crash that ultimately resulted in missing the whole session. It’s frustrating because we had a good first session, we started well, the YZF-R1 was fast and it would have been great to continue the momentum and make the most of it in FP2. I feel good, I really enjoy this track and the bike is working well. I haven’t had the chance to do any long runs, so we have some work to do to allow it to challenge over 25 laps but hopefully we will be able to keep working, both myself and the team, and have a good result tomorrow.”
Niccolo Canepa
10th / 1’24.310 / 52 laps
“We made a lot of changes to the YZF-R1 today, some were good, some not, so we lost some time in the morning with those but at the end we found a good setting and a top ten position is important. It was very important for me to finish inside the top ten for the qualification to Superpole 2 tomorrow, so I’m quite satisfied, but we still have some work to do. Now we have the whole afternoon to study the data and work on the correct setting on the bike, as I’m struggling a little more than in Misano, but I’m quite confident because we already know which areas we need to concentrate on. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, my target was to start better than in Misano where I was in P15 so I’ve already managed that and for sure we can continue to improve further.”
Paul Denning – Team Principal
“The teams and riders all enjoy being at Laguna Seca, the enthusiasm of the fans and the unique nature of the racetrack always combine to create a great event. 13 riders are covered by 0.8 of a second, so the competition is fierce as well.
“We need to find a slightly better balance in the YZF-R1 for both riders and make up for Alex’s lost track time tomorrow. The pace is there, and I am sure we can challenge the front runners in both qualifying and race one.”
More, from a press release issued by Aruba.it Racing Ducati:
Chaz Davies on top at Laguna Seca after Friday’s sessions, Davide Giugliano is sixth
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team started off on the right foot in Laguna Seca (USA), taking the provisional lead with Chaz Davies. The Welshman managed to dictate the pace since the very first laps and, after missing P1 by only a few thousandths of a second in the first session, further raised the bar in the afternoon. After clocking many laps on used tyres with an encouraging pace, Davies posted a provisional best lap of 1:23.622, only two tenths shy of the circuit record.
Davide Giugliano finished day one in sixth position, close to his teammate. The Italian, who has always stepped on the podium in the last three rounds, took almost one second off his best time in between sessions, finishing only 0.326 seconds behind his teammate (with a personal best of 1:23.978) and laying the basis for another solid performance on a track he has always enjoyed before getting injured there during the race last year. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will resume action tomorrow at 09:15 local time (CET -9) in anticipation of Superpole and Race 1, scheduled for 14:30.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #7) – 1st
“We got off a good start. Being the quickest on Friday is always positive, but tomorrow and Sunday are more important. We managed to find a good pace since the very first lap, and there’s still room for improvement, especially in terms of the overall balance of the bike. We’ll put on a fresher engine for tomorrow and probably we won’t need to change the setup too much for FP3 and Superpole, even though it will depend on track temperatures, which in the morning can drop quite a bit.”
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team #34) – 6th
“It’s been undoubtedly a good day, something I needed to erase a bit the bad memories from last year. We’re in the first group, and we’ve shown a good competitiveness, but we still need to improve our setup as I can’t yet ride exactly the way I’d like to. That said, we’ve made big steps forward throughout the day, improving our lap times significantly, and we’ll use FP3 to put on the final touches to the bike and have a go at the podium in both races to continue the recent, positive trend.”
More, from a press release issued by Honda World Superbike Team:
Hayden begins home round with third place in free practice
Round 9 – USA
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, United States
The Honda WorldSBK Team has completed the opening day of the US Round at the Laguna Seca Raceway in California, United States of America, with local hero Nicky Hayden claiming third place in the combined times of today’s two free practice sessions. After missing out on a top-10 finish today by only 0.007secs, Michael van der Mark will start tomorrow’s Superpole from the first session, with the goal to make it through and enter the battle for a spot on the first four rows of the grid.
Round nine of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship started off well for both van der Mark and Hayden, who were fourth and fifth, respectively, at the end of the first hour of action. The two Honda riders had a slightly more difficult time in getting up to speed on board their CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machines in the afternoon: Hayden was able to bounce back in the late stages of FP2 and, after elevating himself to fifth place, he logged in 1’23.866 to take third at the chequered flag. Van der Mark was tenth until the very final moments of the session, but was displaced by a late comeback from Jordi Torres.
The ninth Superpole of the season will get underway tomorrow at 11:30 local time (GMT -7).
Nicky Hayden 69
3rd / 1’23.866
It was a good day overall. Things weren’t looking too good this afternoon, though, until the final moments, when I was able to get out and put together a decent lap time. I was feeling good on the bike and thought I could even improve a bit more. We ran into a few problems today with the electronics, we needed a bit more time than usual to get the right power and the right mapping for the right part of the track. Today wasn’t as smooth as we hoped, but we will try something more tomorrow morning, also tyre-wise, hoping it won’t be too foggy. I’m happy to back at Laguna and to see so many people around on Friday already.
Michael van der Mark 60
11th / 1’24.317
After the difficulties we had last year here at Laguna, I was happy to jump on the bike this morning and feel good straight away. We made some small changes after FP1 but we decided to go back to the previous settings, we then tried a different tyre but, although I was very consistent, the lap-time wasn’t coming. In the end we used the old tyre from the morning and I was able to put together a good lap, but it wasn’t enough. It’s a shame not to be in Superpole 2, but I think we already have a good bike for tomorrow.
Pieter Breddels
Technical Manager
Nicky had a few small issues this morning and lost some more time this afternoon, which was unfortunate. After some steady work with the set-up and with a new set of tyres on, though, he was able to massively improve on his previous lap-time and to go from eleventh to third, with only a quarter of a second gap from first place. That’s a good sign ahead of tomorrow; there are some things we need to sort out but hopefully we can continue improving before race one. Michael was very quick in the morning session, then in the afternoon we got stuck a bit while trying different tyre combinations. It took a while to fully realise the A solution was not the right one for him and, because we had used too many tyres already, we couldn’t give him a fresh set for his last outing. Nonetheless, he is quite happy with the bike and, although he is in Superpole 1, things are still looking good for him.
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
Opening Day A Learning Process For Rea And Sykes At Laguna
The first day of practice at the Laguna Seca round of the FIM Superbike World Championship saw Kawasaki Racing Team riders Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes finish second and fourth fastest respectively. They now head into the final session of Superpole qualifying and race one on Saturday, after the short third free practice session early in the morning.
At a warm and welcoming Laguna Seca circuit in California KRT’s Superbike squad got down to work in the first two practice sessions around the undulating 3.610km circuit, looking for a set-up to best suit the unique challenges offered up at this iconic American venue.
With two one-hour sessions to use to the maximum Rea finished up second quickest on day one, a mere 0.074 seconds from the fastest rider. Sykes was fourth fastest after he and his technical crew tried out some different set-up ideas, based on some of the information gathered during a recent post-race test session at Misano in Italy.
On a dry track surface both official Kawasaki riders found slightly less grip and a few more bumps than they remembered from their 2015 experiences, but still took the all-new model Ninja ZX-10R into the leading times on day one.
Laguna, home of the famous Corkscrew corner, presents unique challenges to any rider and machine package. After the previous round was held at the completely flat Misano World Circuit, there is now overnight work to do in the garages to choose the optimum race settings to take into Superpole, and then the opening race on Saturday afternoon.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “We were just working with the bike today, playing with the spring balance, and we also tried the new rear tyre that Pirelli brought. We reconfirmed that one with the SC0 ‘normal’ tyre, just gathering information. Tonight we will sit down and understand exactly how things are. I feel good with the bike and it feels like it did at Misano, but the grip level of the track is not so high here. I need to improve entry stability a little bit, as it seems like when we get a lot of laps on the tyre, the entry traction is not so good. It is the first day so we are learning, really. It also seems like the track is bumpier than last year but I feel good with the bike.”
Tom Sykes, stated: “We used the hard tyre all session and I am fairly happy. We got a lot of information from the two Friday sessions and I don’t feel we have put our best package together yet. This gives me excitement for tomorrow. We made a lot of changes and we now we need to put those into our package. We will now finish our technical chat with my crew chief Marcel and the boys in the garage and see what we can do. We based ourselves on the Misano test and some things here are not quite as clear as they were then. Compared to Misano it is lower in grip and a little bit bumpy, so we are just having to work at set-up a little bit more. Tomorrow we hope to improve our set-up again.”