The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team headed to Brno as the WorldSBK Championship reaches its halfway point
With six rounds in the books and seven more to go, the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team is ready to resume action at Brno for Round 7 of the WorldSBK Championship, which is reaching its halfway point. The team heads to the Czech track, which returns to the WorldSBK calendar after a five-year absence, to attack and both Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri are as determined as ever to achieve prestigious results and collect important points in both the Riders and Constructors championships.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi, with the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team, is also keen to put the Donington round behind and resume the growth path started at Aragon. After six rounds, Davies (181 points) and Melandri (136 points) are respectively 2nd and 5th in the championship, while Rinaldi (43 points) is 13th. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team and the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team will return to the track Friday, June 8th, at 09:45 local time (CET) for the first free-practice session.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7)
“We’re heading to Brno eager to bounce back after Donington, which wasn’t an easy round for us. We’ll have to take it as it comes, one step at a time. Our first goal is to improve the our package, so we just need to head out on the track together with our rivals. The test we’ve done there was OK but we were playing around with the setup, while the racing weekend is where we need to put it all together. We need to keep working hard and see what happens.”
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #33)
“In Brno, first of all, we want to put behind us the issues we faced at Donington. The tests done in Czech Republic went quite well even though our priority was to improve the overall stability and not to prepare a specific setup for the race. The track itself is flowing, I always liked it and scored some good results there. Despite the fact we didn’t race there in a while, I thought the tarmac was in good conditions. We are really keen to do well and our mindset is positive, because each race has been a different story this year.”
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team #21)
“Brno is a nice track, I really liked it since the first lap when we tested there. The layout makes it fun to ride, even though there are some bumps. Our test was a positive one, so we’re ready to start from a good base but we also know that our rivals were really competitive there. The situation may change because of higher temperatures, so we’ll all probably have to make adjustments. We need to further improve. We just need to get out there and start working.”
Circuit information
Country: Czech Republic
Name: Automotodrom Brno
Length: 5.403 km
Corners: 14 (6 left, 8 right)
Pole position: left
Race distance: 18 laps/97.254 km
RECORDS
Fastest lap: Sykes (Kawasaki), 1:58.010 (164,820 km/h) – 2012
Circuit record: Crutchlow (Yamaha), 1:59.291 (163,050 km/h) – 2010
Superpole: Sykes (Kawasaki), 1:58.010 (164,820 km/h) – 2012
Rider information
Chaz Davies
Bike: Ducati Panigale R
Race number: 7
Age: 31 (Born 10/02/1987 in Knighton, Wales)
SBK races: 164
SBK wins: 29
SBK podiums: 74
Marco Melandri
Bike: Ducati Panigale R
Race number: 33
Age: 35 (Born 07/08/1982 in Ravenna, Italy)
SBK races: 140
SBK wins: 22
SBK podiums: 66
Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Bike: Ducati Panigale R
Race number: 21
Age: 22 (Born 12/21/1995 in Rimini, Italy)
SBK races: 8
SBK wins: –
SBK podiums: –
Weekend schedule (CET):
Friday (June 8th)
09:45 – 10:45 SBK FP1
12:30 – 13:10 SBK FP2
16:05 – 16:45 SBK FP3
Saturday (June 9th)
08:45 – 09:05 SBK FP4
10:30 – 10:45 SBK Superpole 1
10:55 – 11:10 SBK Superpole 2
13:00 SBK Race 1
Sunday (June 10th)
09:35 – 09:50 SBK Warm-up
13:00 SBK Race 2