Giugliano and Gagne to take on season finale in Qatar
Qatar Round
Losail International Circuit, Qatar
The final act of the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship takes place this week at the Losail International Circuit with a slight change in the schedule compared to previous editions – which now sees the final day of action set on Saturday 4 November. The Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team is currently on its way to Qatar’s capital city Doha with Davide Giugliano and the returning Jake Gagne as the standard bearers for the season finale.
After a challenging weekend on Spanish soil, Giugliano is looking forward to the Qatari event with the goal to return to the type of form shown in France a month ago. The Italian rider, who turned 28 three days ago, will try and make the most of this final racing weekend of 2017 to try and finish the season on a high note.
Jake Gagne will return on board the WorldSBK-spec version of the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 for the first time since the French Round at Magny-Cours. The 24-year-old from San Diego has never raced in Qatar before – and never under floodlights! – which means that he will need to find his way around the long and flowing 5.380km Losail circuit and get used to different track conditions, lighting and visibility.
World Superbike action will get underway on Thursday at 17:45 local time (GMT +3), with the two races scheduled to get underway on Friday and Saturday at 21:00.
Davide Giugliano 34
After Jerez being much harder than we expected, we head to Qatar with great motivation to do well and to finish the season on a positive note. Losail is a very different circuit compared to the European ones and the night races are something absolutely unique, so I’m looking forward to that. We need to start the event on the right foot and hopefully I will be able to give the team a strong result at this track.
Jake Gagne 45
I’m so excited to have another race on the World Superbike Fireblade. A huge thank you goes to Honda and Ten Kate for thinking of me again and giving me another great opportunity. Last time out in France was a big learning weekend for me and I want to keep the forward momentum rolling. Qatar will be a new track for me but I can’t wait to start turning laps. I really want to finish the year strong and keep learning.
Ronald ten Kate
Team Manager
We look forward to finishing 2017 on a high note, so that it can be a good starting point for the season to come and a good way to wrap up what has been a very challenging year for us. There are still two races to contest, so we will do our best to get some encouraging results. We are happy to have Davide and Jake on our side once again. Both of them have been extremely professional in their appearances with us, so we hope they can have fun out on track in what surely is a unique event on the calendar.