Motul FIM Superbike World Championship

Circuito de Jerez, Spain

October 14, 2016

Free Practice Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):

1. Tom SYKES, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:41.739

2. Chaz DAVIES, UK (Ducati Panigale R), 1:41.777

3. Alex LOWES, UK (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:41.804

4. Michael VAN DER MARK, Netherlands (Honda CBR1000RR SP), 1:41.859

5. Xavi FORÉS, Spain (Ducati Panigale R), 1:41.895

6. Sylvain GUINTOLI, France (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:41.901

7. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (Honda CBR1000RR SP), 1:41.994

8. Leon CAMIER, UK (MV Agusta F4 RC), 1:42.070

9. Jonathan REA, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:42.098

10. Davide GIUGLIANO, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), 1:42.343

11. Jordi TORRES, Spain (BMW S1000RR), 1:42.478

12. Lorenzo SAVADORI, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:42.480

13. Markus REITERBERGER, Germany (BMW S1000RR), 1:42.531

14. Anthony WEST, Australia (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:42.715

15. Alex DE ANGELIS, San Marino (Aprilia RSV4 RF), 1:42.726

16. Josh BROOKES, Australia (BMW S1000RR), 1:42.926

17. Roman RAMOS, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:43.040

18. Luca SCASSA, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), 1:43.730

19. Gianluca VIZZIELLO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-10R), 1:44.074

20. Peter SEBESTYÉN, Hungary (Yamaha YZF-R1), 1:44.558

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

Sykes First Man Through to Tissot-Superpole 2

– Kawasaki rider sets his sights on pole –

FP2 action began for WorldSBK at 13:30 local time with entry to Tissot-Superpole 2 for the top ten. Xavi Fores (Barni Racing Team) led the charge in the opening minutes of the session before times tumbled with Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) putting in the fastest time. By the end, all of the top ten were within seven tenths of a second of each other on the timesheets, making for a promising weekend of racing ahead.

Sykes maintained the fastest time throughout the session, while Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) improved his time from the morning to finish second fastest. Alex Lowes (Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) put in a last minute dash that saw him steal third on the timesheets.

Temperatures rose by midday and with extra rubber on the circuit, the conditions allowed for riders to set their fastest times, with the entire top ten improving their times from the morning session. Michael van der Mark (Honda World Superbike Team) was fourth, while Fores was the first Spaniard home continuing his good pace on Friday afternoon, to finish in fifth.

Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) improved from the morning session, setting his fastest time in sixth to secure his entry to Tissot-Superpole 2. Nicky Hayden (Honda World Superbike Team) was seventh fastest in the combined times ahead of Leon Camier who set the eighth quickest time despite sliding out on turn 1 in the final minutes of the session. The MV Agusta Reparto Corse rider walked away in the top ten with his sights firmly on Saturday’s Tissot-Superpole 2 shoot-out.

Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jonathan Rea finished in ninth, while Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) finished in tenth gaining a direct seeding to the Tissot-Superpole 2 qualifying session. Giugliano put in a solid performance after sitting out for most of FP2 with his recovering shoulder.

Tissot-Superpole 2 qualifying session will see Friday’s top ten battle it out for pole position on Saturday 15th of October at 10:55am local time (GMT+2) ahead of lights out for Race 1 at 13:00. 

More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:

Sykes Fastest And Rea Ninth On A Day Of Contrasting Fortunes

The first day of action at the 12th round of the FIM Superbike World Championship ended with Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) fastest in combined practice and his team-mate Jonathan Rea ninth. Rea was only 0.359 seconds off the best pace but such was the level of early competition he was ranked just inside the top ten.

Sykes, currently second in the championship, finished only tenth in the morning FP1 session today but recovered his true pace to end up fastest of all, 0.038 seconds ahead of second quickest competitor, Chaz Davies. Sykes completed 45 laps in total today, working towards finding a full race set-up for the first race on Saturday.

Championship leader Rea was seventh in the FP1 morning session, but could not find the required rear grip exiting corners to make the best use of his Ninja ZX-10R’s full capabilities in the combined timesheets. Although ninth in the rankings his best time was very close to Sykes in what was an intense second practice session. Rea made a significant mid-session set-up change this afternoon meaning his spent some time in the pit box as his crew worked on his machine.

After overnight rains the track at Jerez improved after a slightly damp start to FP1. In FP2 the track was almost up to its best condition under a warm autumnal sun in the south of Spain.

FP3 and Superpole qualifying will now precede the first race of the weekend, which will take place at 13.00 on Saturday 15th October. Both KRT riders have qualified automatically for Superpole 2 on Saturday, which will determine their final grid positions.

Tom Sykes, stated: “I am quite happy to be fastest here at Jerez, on a circuit I would not consider to be my strongest one. This is positive for us and we are trying out hardest to improve the set-up again to get a little bit more feedback from the Ninja ZX-10R. In general, I have had some limitations this year and I have not found a cure for them yet which can be frustrating. We are still looking at working on set-up, evaluating some other parameters and possibilities. We will keep working now for tomorrow and Sunday. I feel well prepared even on used tyres, but we need to make sure we are strong in qualifying to set ourselves up for the races.”

Jonathan Rea, stated: “It seems like it is going OK but when we are looking for some improvement it is not coming. I feel I am riding well and the bike is behaving itself on the entry of the corner, and chassis-wise in general, but we are struggling everywhere with traction. We are having more spinning than we did here during testing and the electronics are cutting in everywhere in acceleration. So we just need to focus on that. I normally never struggle with traction and everywhere else on track the bike feels quite good. Consistently we are a couple of tenths off where we should be but there is just one main issue we need to focus on.”

More, from a press released by Honda Superbike Team:

Good start to Spanish Round for the Honda WorldSBK Team

Round 12 – Spain

Circuito de Jerez, Spain

The opening day of action for the Spanish Round of the 2016 FIM Superbike World Championship has been a positive one for the Honda WorldSBK Team. In the combined times of today’s two free practice sessions at Jerez, Michael van der Mark and Nicky Hayden fourth and seventh, respectively. Therefore, both riders have successfully qualified for tomorrow’s Superpole 2, scheduled at 10:55 local time (GMT+2).

Despite the overnight rain, good weather conditions and mild temperatures helped the World Superbike riders to make the most of the two hours of track action available to them. Hayden and van der Mark got up to speed straight away on board their Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machines and were second and sixth at the end of FP1.

As free practice 2 got underway, van der Mark made good use of a new set of Pirelli tyres and, on his first flying lap, he set his fastest time of the day in 1’41.859. The 23-year-old Dutchman kept himself in third place for the majority of the session, before being demoted to fourth by Lowes moments before the chequered flag was deployed. Between the two sessions, Hayden only managed to improve his best lap-time by 0.121s, but that was enough to earn a solid seventh place finish. The American rider also worked on long runs, which helped himself and his crew gather some valuable information for the rest of the weekend.

Michael van der Mark 60

4th / 1’41.859

I’m quite happy with how today went. We had a decent start in the first session and we were able to improve our lap-time. We made some changes for FP2 and, as soon as I went out on track, I was immediately a lot faster. We wanted to improve some more but unfortunately we were unable to find that last tenth of a second that would have moved us further up in the timesheets. The grip seems to get worse after a couple of laps and that’s definitely something we have to work on. We’re not too far off, but we need to work on that last bit of speed we need.

Nicky Hayden 69

7th / 1’41.994

It has been a quite normal day at the office, really. We have a fairly good base set-up for this track from our last test here in January. The conditions seem to be quite different, but we know this track can change quite a lot at different times of the year. This morning was not too bad, while this afternoon I’d have hoped to improve a bit more, especially because here at Jerez every tenth of a second is crucial. I was seventh at the end of FP2, although still only 0.2s from the top. We did some long-run laps on the tyres today to get some good data and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.

Pieter Breddels

Technical Manager

The overnight rain made the track quite slippery, but we definitely cannot complain about the weather today. We put together the set-up found during winter testing and the general settings found throughout the season and it all came out nicely for both riders, who were both able to get up to speed straight away. With fresh tyres, Michael was able to improve quite a lot and that gave us some time to further experiment with the settings. In the end, he has a really strong race pace, but it looks like times are generally very close towards the top positions. With Nicky we tried different tyre choices and in the end he went out for a quick lap but the track had slowed down compared to the start of the session, and it was clear by the fact that only few riders were able to improve their lap-times in the final stages. Overall, we’re quite happy with our performance and things are looking good for tomorrow.

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

Chaz Davies sets the second best time at Jerez de la Frontera, Davide Giugliano is 10th

The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team resumed action in Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) for the penultimate round of the 2016 WorldSBK championship, scheduled for October 14-16. After some downpours earlier this week, favorable weather conditions graced the Spanish track for the first two free-practice sessions with temperatures above 20 degrees.

Chaz Davies, who has won three out of the last four races, confirmed his good form by posting the second best time with a 1:41.777. The Welshman, third at the end of FP1, took half a second off in the afternoon to finish only 0.038 seconds behind the provisional leader Sykes, with whom he is also fighting for second position in the championship.

Giugliano, who did not race during the last round in France to due a right-shoulder injury, stepped back on his Panigale R in better, though not optimal yet, physical conditions. The Italian improved his lap times by eight tenths of a second throughout the day to seize provisional tenth place (+0.604) and gain direct access to Superpole 2.

Both riders will head out on track once again Saturday morning at 08:45 (CET) for the third free-practice session ahead of Superpole and Race 1.

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) 2nd

“Today was good, I’m generally happy with the bike. This afternoon we were right in the ballpark towards the end of the session. The overnight rain made the track quite slick in FP1, but it was just a case of working our way into it. We’ve picked up from the strong form we had in the last couple of races, where we’ve been competitive in every condition, and our goal is to build on that tomorrow. For the race, it will be important to find grip right away, because 21 laps are a long distance to cover. We still need to tweak a few things with the electronics and improve the front end a bit, but we’re definitely going in the right direction.”

Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #34) 10th

“I feel quite good, the shoulder treatment proved to be beneficial and my overall fitness has improved a lot since Magny-Cours. Now I can ride with more continuity, even though the injury is still hindering our performance a bit. I still can’t ride with ease, but the pain has diminished significantly. Today we struggled a bit with the setup, but it was somewhat to be expected since in France we focused our work on the overall comfort on the bike. We still managed to get directly into Superpole 2 and our gap from the front isn’t too big. We need to keep improving, especially in corner entry, but we’re confident.”

More, from a press release issued by MV Agusta:

CAMIER CLOSE IN TOP 10 DESPITE A DOUBLE CRASH IN OPENING DAY AT JEREZ 

After having left behind the great Magny Cours round, with Jules Cluzel winning the race in WorldSSP and Leon Camier close to the podium in Race 2 of WorldSBK, Team MV Agusta Reparto Corse is back on track at Jerez circuit, for the final European round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship.

WorldSBK – FP1, FP2

In the morning FP1 session Leon Camier manages to keep a good pace, reaching the 4th position and then closing in top 10 . Unfortunately, during the final stage of the session Leon loses the front of his MV Agusta F4 RC and crashed, but fortunately the accident does not caused serious physical damage to the rider. Thanks to the excellent work of the team – that was able to totally rebuilt the bike on time – the British manage to get back on track the last minutes of FP2 and, despite a further accident put him out of the game, he manage to close 8th place, 0.3s from first rider. Tomorrow Leon will start from the Tissot-Superpole2 session, trying to get the best position on starting grid.

WorldSSP – FP1, FP2

On the same track where last year he suffered a serious accident during the FP2, Jules Cluzel is now back at the Jerez circuit seeking redemption. Unfortunately, the French rider can not find the right setup on his MV Agusta F3 675 and end up in 14th position after the two qualifying session in the Spanish track.

After getting the Top10 in the FP1 heat, Lorenzo Zanetti struggle with some technical problems in the next FP2 session and he is forced to close in 18th place in the WorldSSP Combined Results charts.

Leon Camier #2 WorldSBK – At the beginning I felt I had the potential to be fast. Unfortunately, the first session was really strange because we made a little bit of changes at this track and it didn’t really help in the end. After the crash the boys managed to get the bike back, building it from zero, and I was able to be back for the last 10 minutes of FP2. I know I was at my limit but I had to push hard in order to stay with the top 10 and in the end I made it. It is a little bit frustrating to crash two times in the same day but I am sure tomorrow we could fight for the top positions again.

Jules Cluzel #16 WorldSSP – Definitely, I am not happy with this day. This morning I had some problems with the setting but I was hoping I could improve in FP2. Unfortunately this afternoon we took the wrong way and I wasn’t able to find a good feeling with the bike. Tomorrow we will start from Superpole1 and I will do my best to get back in the top positions.

Lorenzo Zanetti #87 WorldSSP – For sure not our best day. This morning I started quite well and managed to stay in the top 10 but in the afternoon we had some technical problems with the bike and we weren’t able to maintain the top 10 position. Now we have to figure out what didn’t work and try to do our best tomorrow for the Superpole1.

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

First day of SBK practice for Althea BMW at Jerez

Jerez de la Frontera (Spain), Friday 14 October 2016

The Althea BMW Racing team got to work on day one of this twelfth round of the 2016 World Superbike championship taking place at the Spanish circuit of Jerez. Jordi Torres, racing at home this weekend, is in eighth place after the day’s timed practices, Markus Reiterberger is thirteenth and, in the STK1000 championship, Raffaele De Rosa closes day one in eighth position.

The first timed practice took place this morning on a dry track. Torres immediately showed his determination and was lying fourth at the session’s end, thanks to a best time of 1’42.356. Reiterberger also worked well from the outset, positioning tenth after completing 19 laps, the best of which was a 1’42.920. In the afternoon session, the German rider was able to improve on his time, closing thirteenth having set a best of 1’42.751. Torres, thanks to his fast time set in the morning, ended the day in eighth place, and therefore qualifying for tomorrow’s Superpole2.

In the STK1000 category, De Rosa, despite the fact that he completed just a few laps in the first session due to a damp track, finished fourth thanks to a best time of 1’46.139. In session two, the Italian continued to work hard on the set-up of his BMW, closing in overall eighth place with a fastest time of 1’44.556, set in the final minutes.

Jordi Torres:

“I really want to do well here at Jerez, particularly because I’m racing at home! This morning went well, we worked hard and I felt comfortable. Maybe this afternoon the track temperature was a little higher or something but I wasn’t able to complete a fast lap because the rear continues to move around through the turns when I’m really leaning the bike over. It’s a pity we didn’t improve this afternoon but I hope we can do so tomorrow after making some small changes to my bike.”

Markus Reiterberger:

“Position thirteen doesn’t sound great but the times are quite close though, having said that, seven tenths are hard to find here at Jerez so we need to keep working to close the gap. We found a good solution at the end of the first practice but sadly I had a small crash, losing the front. In session two we made small changes to the suspension and electronics and were able to improve further. So we hope to continue this trend and find more grip and better front feeling tomorrow.”

More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing:

Sizzling Spanish Start as Lowes Hits Jerez Top 3

Alex Lowes opened his penultimate MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship campaign of 2016 in fighting style at Spain’s Circuito de Jerez today by claiming third in Friday’s free practice times with a best lap of 1’41.804. Sylvain Guintoli was also up to speed quickly setting a 1’41.901 to take sixth, with both Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK riders safely through to Saturday’s Superpole 2.

Feeling comfortable from the off, both with his recovering fitness and his YZF-R1, Lowes ran strongly at the 4,423m track as Friday’s practice sessions commenced. The morning’s cool conditions allowed the pace to develop steadily, with the times dropping as the temperatures began to soar. The British rider closed the initial hour in a promising fifth position with a fastest time of 1’42.366 but with the asphalt 11°C hotter, peaking at 35°C, the afternoon soon ramped up. Pleased with the consistent race pace he had run for the majority of the second session, Lowes used the closing minutes to lay down his marker and secure his top-three position in the day’s combined times.

Guintoli began the morning session convincingly, sitting sixth after the first 25 minutes until a technical issue cut his practice short. His Pata Yamaha crew working quickly to a solution, his YZF-R1 was back out on track and straight in to second position as the afternoon session began, with the Frenchman continuing to run strongly as the final 60 minutes counted down. Satisfied with his Spanish weekend’s progress so far, Guintoli is looking forward to tomorrow’s 20-lap race, scheduled for 13:00 local time.

Niki Tuuli continued his compelling run in the FIM Supersport World Championship, despite competing in only his fourth race event in the series, by claiming third after Friday’s two practice sessions. The young Finn set a best lap of 1’44.914 on his Kallio Racing YZF-R6 as he heads directly into Saturday’s second Superpole at 11:55.

Alex Lowes

3rd / 1’41.804 / 47 laps

“It’s been a good day and I feel a lot better on the bike, which after feeling a little second-hand at Magny-Cours is nice! The guys have done a great job, we’ve gone back to a setting that I know from testing and it’s the best feeling I’ve had over the year on the front of the YZF-R1 so I’ve got more confidence. If I can keep working hard with that tomorrow to try to improve my confidence a little more, then we should be good. I’m not too worried about the race result I just want to be solid and close the gap on the guys at the front over the race distance, which is my goal for this weekend but so far it’s been good!”

Sylvain Guintoli

6th / 1’41.901 / 33 laps

“In the end it was a good day overall for us. It started on the back foot with a bit of a technical issue but we picked it back up straight away from the first laps of FP2 and managed to climb almost all the way up before working on the race pace. It was an interesting day, the track is very slippery with the high temperatures and I think it is going to create some very interesting riding for tomorrow, with loads of riders close together. Hopefully a good qualifying pace for us and a good fight tomorrow.”

Paul Denning ? Team Principal

“It’s been a good Friday here at Jerez. The only negative was a technical issue for Sylvain this morning but both rider and team rebounded very well, with immediate speed this afternoon.

“Alex had a really solid day and has reacted extremely well from the disappointments of the last race. Lots of fast, consistent laps and good technical feedback puts us in a good place for tomorrow.

“Everybody in the team has been very focused today and everyone has done a good job. It’s very close on pace between the podium and 10th position, so we need to qualify well tomorrow morning and hope we can continue this progression.”