Motul FIM Superbike World Championship
Donington Park, England
May 29, 2016
Provisional Race Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):
1. Tom SYKES, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 23 laps, Total Race Time 33:55.601, Best Lap Time 1:27.676
2. Jonathan REA, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), -2.017 seconds, 1:27.605
3. Chaz DAVIES, UK (Ducati Panigale R), -4.437, 1:28.199
4. Lorenzo SAVADORI, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 RF), -6.423, 1:28.152
5. Leon CAMIER, UK (MV Agusta 1000 F4), -11.808, 1:28.480
6. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (Honda CBR1000RR SP), -12.455, 1:28.176
7. Davide GIUGLIANO, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), -24.212, 1:28.518
8. Michael VAN DER MARK, Netherlands (Honda CBR1000RR SP), -25.931, 1:28.977
9. Josh BROOKES, Australia (BMW S1000RR), -26.512, 1:28.753
10. Cameron BEAUBIER, USA (Yamaha YZF-R1), -26.955, 1:28.764
11. Jordi TORRES, Spain (BMW S1000RR), -29.684, ran off track, 1:28.989
12. Anthony WEST, Australia (Kawasaki ZX-10R), -35.433, 1:29.253
13. Roman RAMOS, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-10R), -35.862, 1:29.224
14. Xavi FORÉS, Spain (Ducati Panigale R), -39.240, 1:28.745
15. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (Aprilia RSV4 RF), -45.790, 1:29.684
16. Markus REITERBERGER, Germany (BMW S1000RR), -46.252, 1:29.534
17. Luca SCASSA, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), -56.488, 1:29.672
18. Dominic SCHMITTER, Switzerland (Kawasaki ZX-10R), -78.282, 1:30.587
19. Pawel SZKOPEK, Poland (Yamaha YZF-R1), -83.479, 1:30.716
20. Saeed AL SULAITI, Qatar (Kawasaki ZX-10R), -12 laps, DNF, retired, 1:31.762
21. Imre TÓTH, Hungary (Yamaha YZF-R1), -17 laps, DNF, mechanical, 1:35.009
22. Matthieu LUSSIANA, France (BMW S1000RR), -18 laps, DNF, retired, 1:31.500
23. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (BMW S1000RR), -23 laps, DNF, mechanical, no lap time recorded
24. Sheridan MORAIS, South Africa (Kawasaki ZX-10R), DNS
25. Alex LOWES, UK (Yamaha YZF-R1), DNS
Championship Point Standings (after 14 of 26 races):
1. Rea, 293 points
2. Sykes, 237
3. Davies, 231
4. Giugliano, 147
5. Van Der Mark, 141
6. Hayden, 136
7. Torres, 117
8. Camier, 97
9. Savadori, 89
10. Lowes, 70
21. Beaubier, 6
More, from a press release issued by Dorna WSBK Press Office:
Donington: Day 3
A Tale of Two Kawasakis
KRT duo duel it out at Donington
An incredible start for the Kawasaki Racing Team pairing of Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea saw the two Brits escape at the front of the race, beginning a more than twenty lap tussle that eventually saw Sykes earn an eighth victory at the Derbyshire track. Reigning Champion Rea crossed the line in P2 to take another podium and keep his incredible haul of points for the title increasing, and Ducati’s Chaz Davies found redemption after a tricky Race 1 in which the Welshman suffered two crashes, completing the podium in third.
Sykes was the pacesetter throughout the weekend and the Yorskhireman’s Kawasaki wasn’t beaten into Turn 1 in Race 2, but teammate Jonathan Rea got an incredible start from the second row to set off in Sykes’ wake around Donington Park. Staying with his teammate, Rea made some moves to take the lead but a small mistake at the final turn saw Sykes regain the lead and then find the legs to pull away to cross the line 2 seconds clear.
Aruba.it rider Chaz Davies made amends for his Race 1 after a difficult Friday with technical problems and locked out the podium in P3, with teammate Davide Giugliano having some issues and unable to repeat his podium from Saturday. The Italian Ducati rider came home in P7.
Lorenzo Savadori had another impressive performance onboard the IodaRacing Aprilia and converted his front row start into a repeat of the rookie Italian’s best ever P4 finish claimed earlier in the season, ahead of MV Agusta rider Leon Camier, riding at home, who put in a sterling ride to bring the Italian marque home in illustrious company in the top 5.
Honda’s Nicky Hayden had a good start and hunted down Giugliano and Savadori in the initial stages, before encountering a drop in pace and eventually succumbing to Camier in the closing stages and coming home in P6. Teammate Michael van der Mark dueled with Milwaukee BMW rider Josh Brookes and beat the Australian over the line to take P8.
Brookes, who has a lot of experience at Donington, moved up through the field to finish in P9 and top BMW at the Milwaukee team’s home race. The top ten was completed by stand in rider Cameron Beaubier riding for Pata Yamaha in place of injured Sylvain Guintoli, with the American putting in a calm and solid performance to gain some good points for the team.
After a history-making weekend at Donington, Round 8 sees WorldSBK back on track at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on the Riviera di Rimini from 17th – 19th June as Ducati race at home once again.
More, from a press release issued by Honda:
Hayden and van der Mark battle hard in race two at Donington
Round 7 – UK
Donington Park, United Kingdom
Round seven of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship has come to an end with the second race of the weekend at Donington Park, which saw the Honda WorldSBK duo of Nicky Hayden and Michael van der Mark finishing in sixth and eighth positions, respectively.
Nicky did not enjoy the best of starts from seventh place on the grid but was able to make up places using the outside line at turn one. By the end of the opening lap, the American rider was running in fifth place and setting his sights on fourth, which he took from Giugliano on lap four with a perfect pass at Coppice 1.
Hayden brilliantly defended his position from a competitive Lorenzo Savadori, who was right in his slipstream for almost the entire first half of the encounter. When he eventually dropped back to fifth behind the Aprilia rider, he started to experience a loss of grip, which made it difficult for him to keep a consistent pace around the 4.023 Km English track. He eventually had to give away one more position at the end of the penultimate lap of 23 and had nothing to fight back with before the chequered flag was deployed.
Michael van der Mark’s race was once again affected by his twelfth-place grid position; the Dutchman found himself battling for eighth place with Joshua Brookes and Cameron Beaubier, eventually getting the better of both opponents. In the final stages of the encounter, van der Mark’s pace was not too far from the front-runners, although he was not able to close on Giugliano for seventh.
World Superbike will now enjoy a three-week break before round eight, which will take place at the Misano World Circuit in Italy on June 17-19. The team will also perform a single-day test this Wednesday at the same track, in preparation for the Italian event.
Nicky Hayden 69
6th
Of course, I cannot be happy with sixth place but I have no excuses; the team did a great job with the bike and we switched to a harder front tyre, which gave me better stability under braking in the downhill corners. I did my fastest lap of the weekend, including qualifying, today. My pace was much quicker than yesterday but I simply wasn’t fast enough, especially after halfway when I started experiencing a little technical problem that hurt our performance a bit. I also struggled in changing direction, especially when lifting the bike and I had a couple of big moments at the Esses. Too bad, because for a while I thought I could close the gap to Chaz Davies and fight for the podium. As I said thanks to the team because the bike was better today and now we just need to come up with something to improve it a bit more.
Michael van der Mark 60
8th
It has been another difficult race for me, in all ways similar to the one I had yesterday. I was able to make a couple of places at the start but I got stuck again in the battle for eighth with Josh Brookes and Cameron Beaubier. I was eventually able to pass them and stay ahead, but it definitely wasn’t easy. Our starting position surely didn’t help, but we wouldn’t have had the pace anyway to battle for the top 5. There’s still a lot of work to do and we will start with Misano. Hopefully next week’s test there will help us find the solution to the problems I have been experiencing lately.
Pieter Breddels
Technical Manager
Nicky had a great first half of the race and it was clear that he had a good feeling with the bike. Unfortunately he couldn’t keep the same pace until the end and we are working hard to find out what happened. Sixth is not a bad result but surely we were looking for more today. On the positive side of things, we were able to improve the bike a lot during the weekend and that’s great news for the upcoming races. We tried the new suspension linkage on Michael’s bike that we used on Nicky’s yesterday and that, along with some changes to the electronics, helped him finding a better feeling. Unfortunately, this didn’t translate to a better result; he also had a small problem on the last lap, which we are sorry for. Hopefully on Wednesday at a one-day test in Misano we will be able to come up with a good set-up for both bikes in order to be ready for next round.
More, from a press release issued by MV Agusta:
SOLID TOP 5 IN RACE 2 FOR LEON CAMIER AT DONINGTON
Leon Camier ended 5th in Race2 at the Donington Park circuit in the UK today; while Cluzel-Zanetti duo got a top 10 finish in WorldSSP Race, after struggling with the bike setup.
WorldSBK – Race2
With this 5th position finish in WorldSBK Race2 and with the yesterday’s 4th place in Race1 Leon Camier gives the Team MV Agusta Reparto Corse an impressive race weekend.
Racing at his home race and with an excellent setting at his MV Agusta F4 RC, Camier started 8th and quickly found a good pace, passing the World Champion Nicky Hayden in the final stage of the Race and increasing of 11 points his score on the overall standing.
WorldSSP – Race
The 7th round of the World WorldSSP 2016 was run in weather conditions slightly colder than in qualifying sessions, which made it more complicated the work on the setting of the two MV Agusta F3 657.
When the lights go off Jules Cluzel, who had recorded the highest speed (244.9 km/h) in morning Warm-up, started really fast, passing 3 riders and putting behind his team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti, who started from the 9th position on grid . At the end of the 20 laps the French rider, struggling with some set-up problems, managed to finish 8th, earning 5 positions respect to the grid placement. The team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti finished two positions behind the French rider, closing the Top 10 under the checkered flag.
The next MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship round will take place in Italy, in Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”, June 17-19. Once again in the home track for Team MV Agusta Reparto Corse.
Leon Camier #2 – To be honest it was a really good race. I struggled a bit on the start and when I managed to get the rhythm I found a good pace but not enough to go with the guys on front. I did my best to push hard and in the last lap I managed to pass Hayden as well. I am really happy with the result and with the work we did here in Donington.
Jules Cluzel #16 – Today we lacked a lot of grip, plus I also had some problems on the engine brake. I just couldn’t do better then this, I preferred to avoid unnecessary risks and bring home as many points as possible for the ranking.
Lorenzo Zanetti #87 – In the last races we always start very fast on Friday, entering the Top 10 and always getting into the Superpole2. We need to understand what prevents us from doing the extra step to improve on Saturday as well and fight in the front, like we always did. Consequently in race we struggle to keep up with the first but I’m sure that once we fix our limit we will return to fight with the best.
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Motor Europe:
Sykes Doubles Up At Home With Rea Second
The remarkable winning record of Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and the Ninja ZX-10R at Donington Park continued today as Sykes won his second WorldSBK race in as many days, and his fourth of the year. Fellow KRT rider Jonathan Rea was a close second for much of the 23-lap second race, continuing his 100% podium finishing record in 2016 at the end and maintaining a strong championship lead. He now leads his own team-mate in a KRT 1-2, as Sykes went second in the overall standings after his race two victory.
After the official Kawasaki riders shot into an early lead – Sykes from pole and Rea from the second row – there were only two riders competing for the win and each was on the new model Ninja ZX-10R. Rea set a new lap record of 1’27.605 to get himself back into the slipstream of a fleeing Sykes on lap two, as the race settled into a high speed game of cat and mouse between the KRT team-mates.
With a handful of laps to go Rea made a pass on Sykes but in finding a false neutral into Goddards he lost ground that he would never quite make up as Sykes maintained a high and consistent pace right to the end. Feeling the effects of arm pump close to the end of the intense 23-lap race Rea eased up in the final few laps, with third place finisher Chaz Davies safely over two seconds behind him, and 4.437 seconds behind Sykes.
Sykes’ celebration over the finish line was obvious for all to see as he continued what has become a legendary run of race wins at Donington – eight in a row. A Superpole success and then a double race win made Donington yet another almost perfect race weekend for Tom, topped off by regaining second place in the championship.
Tom is now 56 points behind Jonathan, who has 293 points to Tom’s 237. Rea has five race wins this year, Sykes now four, with Davies and Nicky Hayden the only other race winners so far.
In the Manufacturers’ Standings Kawasaki has a commanding 53-point lead thanks to the exploits of the new model Ninja ZX-10R and the official KRT pairing of Rea and Sykes. The next round of the championship will take place at Misano, between 17 and 19 June.
Tom Sykes stated: “Eight in a row at Donington feels fantastic and I am over the moon. I had a good start to race two and had good pace. For sure it was not perfect and for sure that is why we had a lot of pressure. We did a very good job and had to fight again, so it is more rewarding when you win like this. I am grateful to Kawasaki, Marcel, Danilo and all the boys in the garage because we have won three of the last four races, which is quite promising. We have won on some difficult circuits this year, physically and from a point of view of the types of tracks. Thailand, Sepang and two-times here – which is a circuit of two halves. Consistently, I think we are getting better. I am going to bed tonight thinking we have had a perfect weekend.”
Jonathan Rea stated: “I got another neutral going into the final hairpin corner, just as I had made my pass, so I was a little bit frustrated with that. In the end of the race I did not have much for Tom. I feel my bike was working really good, so I want to thank my team, especially as we have been working close with Kawasaki and all the crew to get the bike suited to me. It seems we are getting there now. In the last few races we have defined the engine character that I really like, so now it is the balance of the bike that seems to be working. To be so close to Tom, in a circuit that he is so strong at, is good because he is riding really strongly now. I am happy for that and happy to come here and make a big margin in my championship lead as well. That is the priority – but it would have been really nice to cap it off with a win in race two. My bike was feeling really good but near the end I just suffered a little bit with arm pump in my right arm.”
Guim Roda, KRT Team Manager, stated: “It was another great day for KRT and we were especially pleased to be joined at Donington Park by Mr Horiuchi, the General Manager of the Technology Division of the Motorcycle & Engine Company at KHI. For him to be with Tom and Jonathan on the podium was a fitting end to another successful weekend.”
Anthony West (Pedercini racing Kawasaki) was 12th in race two, Roman Ramos (Go Eleven Team Kawasaki) 13th and Dominic Schmitter (Grillini Racing Team Kawasaki) placed 18th. Saeed Al Sulaiti (Pedercini Racing Team Kawasaki) was a non-finisher.
More, from a press release issued by Althea Racing BMW:
A tough SBK race for the Althea BMW Racing Team at Donington, while De Rosa scores a stunning Stock1000 win
Donington Park (UK), Sunday 29 May 2016
The seventh round of the Superbike World Championship concluded today at the Donington Park circuit in the UK. In the SBK race, the Althea BMW Racing team finished eleventh with Jordi Torres and sixteenth with Markus Reiterberger at the end of a rather difficult weekend.
Great satisfaction in the Stock1000 on the other hand, where team Althea BMW and rider Raffaele De Rosa ran away with the victory, scoring their second win of the season and consolidating their lead in the championship classification.
Superstock 1000 – Race – starting from pole, De Rosa defended himself well though the first turn to take an early lead. The Althea BMW rider then put together the perfect race, in which he continued to build his advantage lap after lap, thanks to an impressively fast pace. Raffaele set the fastest lap of the race, a 1’29.800, in the early stages and had built a 3 second lead by mid-race. With none of his rivals able to come close, De Rosa crossed the line in first place, with a comfortable 3.3 second lead over Mercado, second.
Thanks to today’s result, De Rosa consolidates his lead in the championship standings with 82 points to Mercado’s 77.
Superbike – Race 2 – a rather uneventful race for Torres and Reiterberger today. Placing 11th and 16th respectively through the first corners, the Althea BMW riders each made up a position in the opening stages. The Spaniard lost a little ground when he ran off track on lap 12, after which, holding the same positions throughout the second half of the race, the pair crossed the line in final eleventh (Torres) and sixteenth (Reiterberger) place.
Now mid-way through the 2016 Superbike World Championship, Jordi Torres lies seventh in the general standings with 117 points, while Reiterberger is in thirteenth place with 58 points. BMW is fourth in the manufacturer’s classification with 127 points, and Althea BMW also lies fourth in the team rankings (175 points).
Jordi Torres:
“Today didn’t go well. Several riders passed me at the start and after this, I tried to maintain a good pace, behind VD Mark, but at a certain point I made a mistake shifting down and ran off track, losing ground. The rest of the race I spent lapping alone, without any problems, but I took the opportunity to try to modify my riding to see if I could improve the problems we’ve been having with the bike moving around. I think I’ve learned something that could be useful in the next races. Now I can’t wait to get to Misano, where we need to do better.”
Markus Reiterberger:
“Another bad race for us. We tried something new to give me more feeling with the bike today but the results didn’t improve. I don’t feel comfortable on the bike, and have had the same problems right from the start of the weekend. I feel bad because everyone’s working so hard and I’m really trying my best. I’m disappointed but hope we can improve in the next races.”
More, from a press release issued by Aruba.it Racing Ducati:
Third place for Chaz Davies in Race 2 at Donington, Giugliano 7th
After taking second position with Davide Giugliano in Race 1, the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team stepped on the podium once again in Donington (U.K.) with Chaz Davies, who finished Race 2 in third position. A result that partially comforts the Welsh rider and shows his resilience after the difficulties encountered on Friday and Saturday. Giugliano, on the other hand, faced an opposite fate and, after barely missing the victory in Race 1, was unfortunately forced to play defense due to some unexpected grip issues, whose cause is yet to be determined.
Taking second and fourth position respectively after a positive start, Davies and Giugliano fought from the early phases of the race to match the pace of the leading couple composed by Sykes and Rea. The Welshman showed significant progress compared with the previous days, managing to set his pace in the low 1:28 mark and holding third position until the checkered flag. Giugliano was hindered by some unforeseen problems instead, mostly under braking, which prevented him from showing his previous competitiveness and caused him to struggle and finish in seventh position.
After seven rounds, Davies (231 points) and Giugliano (147 points) occupy third and fourth position in the championship respectively, while Ducati is second in the Manufacturers standings with 268 points. The WorldSBK championship will resume action the weekend of July 17-19 in Misano for the eighth round, in preparation of which the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will have a two-day test on the Italian track next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 3rd
“It’s definitely good to step back on the podium after the difficulties we’ve encountered here in Donington. Most of all, it was important to score a positive result after not being able to finish the race yesterday. I think it all began with our problems on Friday, and yesterday I probably pushed a bit too hard, but we’re here to win races and you have to give it a try when you’re in the lead. We know we can do better, there are certainly a few aspects under which we can improve, but it was difficult to beat the Kawasakis on this track. Today, we’ve made some good progress also thanks to the data we gathered yesterday during the race, and the goal is to get to Misano in a different position. We’ll prepare the next round with two days of tests next week, and the first objective will be to improve our results from 2015.”
Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) – 7th
“This weekend left a bittersweet taste in our mouth. After a strong race yesterday, we were hoping to make another step forward to be competitive until the very end of the race. Instead, we had some problems under braking and in corner entry, still to be clarified, which were detrimental to our performance. Here in Donington there are 3 or 4 hard-braking corners where it’s possible to make the difference, and we lost a lot of time each lap there. Still, yesterday’s second place can’t be taken away from us, and now we need to work harder to make sure we don’t run into similar stumbling blocks in the future and keep improving. I can’t wait to race in front of our fans in Misano, a track where we’ve been usually quite competitive.”
Serafino Foti, Team Manager
“Despite some difficulties faced throughout the weekend, we were able to take two more podiums with Davide and Chaz, even though we would have liked to do more. The gap in the championship increased, but we’ve shown once again we can be competitive on any track. We need to look forward and keep believing in our goals, always, as the season is just half-way and there are still 300 points up for grabs.”
More, from a press release issued by Pata Yamaha:
Top Ten Finish for Beaubier on his Donington Debut
Cameron Beaubier concluded his debut weekend with the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team at Donington Park in the UK today, securing a top ten finish in the 23-lap contest. With just under three hours of track time aboard the YZF-R1 under his belt, the young American put on a standout performance at the British track to the delight of his team and its supportive home crowd.
A more conservative but less aggressive start to Sunday’s race saw Beaubier immediately consolidate his grid position, running ninth for the opening three laps before advancing to eighth from lap four. Holding position until the halfway stage he lost out in a three rider battle on lap 13 to sit tenth and while his pace improved for the closing stages, he concluded the race rounding out the top-ten and collecting his first set of six championship points.
The Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team now look towards the Misano World Circuit – Marco Simoncelli as the championship moves back to Italy for round eight, commencing on Friday 17th June.
Cameron Beaubier
Race: 10th / +26.955 / 23 laps. Championship: 21st / 6 points
“I struggled for the opening third of the race just because, honestly, crashing on the opening lap yesterday hurt me more than I originally realised just with the lack of track time and losing all that experience. The second half of the race I felt a lot better on the bike, two guys came past me and I thought they were going to leave me but slowly I started to chip away and claw my way back to them, which felt good. It is one of those things, I feel that if today was yesterday and we could start on a new day tomorrow after the race we’ve just had, that we would have been able to put myself in a much better position. I’m not really happy with tenth, obviously I want to be a bit higher up than that, but I’m happy with how I felt towards the end of the race. I wanted to try to pass one of them on the last lap but I ran out time!
“Most importantly I just want to thank Pata Yamaha for giving me this opportunity and for Yamaha US for letting me come to do this. It was a really fun weekend, I learnt a lot and I hope to do it again someday.”
Paul Denning Paul Denning – Team Principal
“Of course, a tough weekend without Alex and Sylvain being able to ride, but thanks to them both for attending today and spending time with our sponsors and guests.
“Cameron has done a great job – the depth of talent in WorldSBK is significant and it’s never easy jumping on a new bike, with a new team and on tyres you’ve never ridden before. He has summed it up perfectly – 23 laps yesterday in Race 1 would have set us up much better for today. Even so, a hard fought top-ten in your first WorldSBK race is nothing to be sniffed at, so thanks to Cameron for his efforts and to Keith McCarty and the team at Yamaha US for loaning us their talented rider.”