Motul FIM Superbike World Championship
Lausitzring, Germany
August 19, 2017
Race One Results (all on Pirelli tires):
1. Chaz DAVIES, UK (Ducati Panigale R), 21 laps, Total Race Time 34:08.073, Best Lap Time 1:36.919
2. Jonathan REA, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), -1.834 seconds, 1:37.012
3. Tom SYKES, UK (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), -3.250, 1:36.918
4. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (Ducati Panigale R), -16.005, 1:37.168
5. Leon CAMIER, UK (MV Agusta F4), -16.597, 1:37.600
6. Alex LOWES, UK (Yamaha YZF-R1), -16.783, 1:37.603
7. Lorenzo SAVADORI, Italy (Aprilia RSV4 RF), -24.898, 1:37.807
8. Xavi FORÉS, Spain (Ducati Panigale R), -31.137, 1:38.266
9. Jordi TORRES, Spain (BMW S1000RR), -31.373, 1:38.028
10. Eugene LAVERTY, Ireland (Aprilia RSV4 RF), -40.593, 1:37.642
11. Leandro MERCADO, Argentina (Aprilia RSV4 RF), -47.796, ran off track, 1:39.049
12. Randy KRUMMENACHER, Switzerland (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), -48.509, 1:38.905
13. Marcus REITERBERGER, Germany (BMW S1000RR), -50.795, ran off track, 1:38.184
14. Roman RAMOS, Spain (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), -60.282, 1:38.932
15. Michael VAN DER MARK, Netherlands (Yamaha YZF-R1), -64.118, 1:38.381
16. Ayrton BADOVINI, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), -95.425, ran off track, 1:39.812
17. Raffaele DE ROSA, Italy (BMW S1000RR), -5 laps, DNF, crash, 1:38.345
18. Pawel SZKOPEK, Poland (Yamaha YZF-R1), -6 laps, DNF, mechanical, 1:40.606
19. Riccardo RUSSO, Italy (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), -7 laps, DNF, retired, 1:39.563
20. Ondrej JEZEK, Czech Republic (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), -11 laps, DNF, mechanical, 1:40.031
21. Davide GIUGLIANO, Italy (Honda CBR1000RR), -11 laps, DNF, mechanical, 1:38.941
22. Massimo ROCCOLI, Italy (Yamaha YZF-R1), -15 laps, DNF, mechanical, 1:41.498
23. Stefan BRADL, Germany (Honda CBR1000RR), DNS
More, from a press release issued by Dorna WSBK Press Office:
Davies dominates in Germany with Race One victory
Race 1 at Lausitzring sees Davies speed to victory, with Rea and Sykes also on the podium
As the riders enjoyed their first race since the summer break it was Welshman Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) who produced a superb ride at the Prosecco DOC German Round on Saturday, taking victory by a 1.834s margin from Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), with Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) also on the podium.
Repeating his Race 1 victory from Lausitzring last year Davies controlled the race well after starting in third on the grid, taking the lead on the second lap. He was too strong for Rea and Sykes despites their best efforts to chase him down.
Sykes had set a new pole record earlier in the day but could not match Davies’ race pace and crossed the line in third place, 3.25s down on the Ducati-equipped race winner.
The Saturday contest at Round 9 in Germany saw Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) cross the line in fourth place, 16 seconds down on his teammate Davies, with Leon Camier (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) getting a creditable fifth place as he finished half a second behind Melandri.
Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) put pressure on Camier for fifth but just missed out by 0.186s as the highest finisher on the YZF R1.
Lorenzo Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia) was the best finisher on the Aprilia RSV4 RF in seventh, whilst Xavi Fores (BARNI Racing Team), Jordi Torres (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) rounded out the top ten.
On his WorldSBK return wildcard Markus Reiterberger (Van Zon Remeha BMW) was running in a solid eighth place for much of the race before he ran into the gravel at turn 10 and dropped down the order to eventually finish 13th.
Earlier Leandro Mercado (IODARacing) had suffered a midrace off track excursion and he ended up 11th. There were several high profile crashers and retirees including Italian quartet Riccardo Russo (Guandalini Racing), Raffaele de Rosa (Althea BMW Racing Team) and Davide Giugliano (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team).
Stefan Bradl (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team) was forced to sit out due to pain in his left elbow, after crashing on Friday and having a further medical check following Superpole on Saturday morning. His condition is to be evaluated again on Sunday morning before Warm Up.
Indeed Sunday’s action at the Prosecco DOC German Round will see the WorldSBK riders on track for their Warm Up session at 9.30am local time (GMT+2), with Race 2 commencing at 1pm local time.
P1 – Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“Last year was a great race for us in the first race and this year I knew that would be a different story. It was a matter of scratching out a result as everyone had a strong pace, I felt like we showed we had the best pace over 21 laps instead of one lap. I kept my powder dry, 25 points in the bag and I’m very happy with that.”
P2 – Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team)
“I think second position is the best we could have expected this weekend, after we’ve had some problems all weekend. In the mid part of the race I did think I had a little bit extra, but it wasn’t enough to match Davies’ pace, so a big well done to him.”
P3 – Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team)
“Overall I’m happy with our performance, I had a bit of a problem and wasn’t able to exit the long turns as I would have liked and that’s whats slowed us down, we just need to work on those issues tomorrow and I think we’ll be up and fighting.”
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
Podium Finishes For Rea And Sykes
Jonathan Rea (KRT) and Tom Sykes (KRT) each scored podium results in the opening 21-lap WorldSBK race at the Lausitzring in Germany, with Rea second and Sykes third today. With one more race to go this weekend, Jonathan has a 63-point championship lead over Tom
Making progress through race weekend, despite encountering some changeable track conditions, Rea built up to an eventual second place in the opening race, having scored second spot in Superpole. He chased eventual winner Chaz Davies all the way to the flag after he took second place on lap three, but could not find enough traction near the end to mount a final challenge for victory. Rea was less than two seconds down on the win at the flag.
Sykes, who had set a new pole record for the Lausitzring earlier in the day as he captured his 42nd career Superpole win, led the first lap of race one. After first Davies and then Jonathan passed him, Tom could not regain a winning position and he finished 3.25 seconds from first place. His pole win was the 70th for Kawasaki in WorldSBK history and was taken on Tom’s 32nd birthday.
After more heavy overnight rain, the track took some time to get back to the grip level of the early sessions today, but when it did it allowed the leading three to move well ahead of the chasing riders at the flag, with Sykes 13 seconds up on the fourth placed rider.
In the championship standings, with one more Lausitzring race to go tomorrow, Sunday 20th, Rea now has 361 points and Sykes 298 – with the official Ninja ZX-10RR duo still 1-2 in the rankings. Davies’s win takes him to a total of 251 points, in third place.
Jonathan Rea, stated: “In the beginning and middle parts of the race I felt I had the pace to be with Chaz. Following him, I did not know exactly where I was going to be strong enough to make a pass to make my own race. I just tried to say stay there as long as I could and hope that the gap would open up behind. Then I started suffering with the right hand side of my rear tyre. I was starting to struggle to make the lap times and through some of the right-handers I felt on ice a little bit. I just had to manage my own race, and the guys gave me incredible pit-board signals. When Chaz was eking out a gap there was nothing I could do to win. So I put all my effort into keeping a solid rhythm and preserving the tyre for the last laps. Until we all put our heads together and look at the data we will not really know if we chose the correct rear tyre option today. It has been such a tough weekend because of the conditions, and all the rain we have had. But the pace today was still much faster, on a green track, than last year’s race, or even my race simulation during the test here in the summer break. Hopefully it will not rain again so much tonight.”
Tom Sykes, stated: “I got a strong start and the lap times were good but our main rival had something extra compared to all the practice, so we just missed out. Whether it was a tyre choice, as we went for the softer option, but the only thing I was struggling with in the race is that I was not able to get of the corners as strongly as I wanted to. We will have to look at this for tomorrow but overall I am just disappointed not to convert the pole position into a win today. But Chaz and Jonathan were riding strongly and compared to last year the lap times were much faster. In Superpole the bike itself was working really nice, really consistent and it did pretty much what I wanted it to.”
More, from a press release issued by MV Agusta:
SOLID RACE1 FOR LEON CAMIER, CLOSING 5TH AT LAUSITZRING
After a long summer break, the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship makes return at the EuroSpeedway Lausitzring circuit in Germany, home of the 9th round of the season. The MV Agusta Reparto Corse was the 3° best team in the race thanks to the 5th place got by Leon Camier in today’s WorldSBK Race1.
WorldSBK – FP3, SP2, Race1
After meeting some difficulties in Friday’s Free Practice because of the pouring rain, Leon Camier was able to close today’s Tissot-Superpole2 in Top 10, setting the the 9th time (1’36.931).
At the start of Race1 Camier immediately gains two positions and, thanks the strong feeling with his MV Agusta F4RC machine, he is able to get into the Top 5 after just three laps. After a solid and constant race, Leon closes in 5th position under the checkered flag, only 0,5s far from Marco Melandri, and tomorrow will kick off Race2 from the 2nd place on the starting grid.
The MV Agusta F4 RC bike of the Team MV Agusta Reparto Corse was the first bike to follow the Kawasaki-Ducati duo in this race.
WorldSSP – FP3, SP1
The WorldSSP Tissot-Superpole1 raced at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz this afternoon saw the MV Agusta Reparto Corse duo struggle more than usual due to some feeling problems with the bike. PJ Jacobsen, the best of the two riders, closed 14th, while the Italian Alessandro Zaccone ended up 16th but 2nd in the ESS ranking.
Leon Camier #2 WorldSBK – It was a really good race for us and I am truly happy because the bike was working really good in the race. I set a solid rhythm from the first lap and I managed to make some good passes as well. I couldn’t go with the lead group as I lost too much time passing the riders at the beginning of the race but I am quite sure if I had had one more lap I could have passed Melandri as well. Big thank to MV Agusta and my team for their great job and effort.
Patrick Jacobsen #99 WorldSSP – Today wasn’t absolutely a good day for us and I couldn’t lap as I was always able to do over this season. We have to work hard on the bike and trying to be ready for the race tomorrow.
Alessandro Zaccone #61 ESS – We are moving forward with the bike’s electronic and we begin to see real improvements in this direction. We still have some work to do on the chassis because I can not ride exactly as I would to, but now I just want to stay focused on tomorrow’s race and try to do my best.
More, from a press release issued by Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team:
Technical problem for Giugliano as Bradl sits out race one at Lausitzring
German Round
Lausitzring, Germany
The opening race of the ninth WorldSBK round of the season was contested today at the Lausitzring racetrack in Germany. With Stefan Bradl out of action following yesterday’s crash during free practice two, Davide Giugliano was running in the top-15 when a technical problem forced him back to the pits approximately halfway through the encounter.
Giugliano enjoyed a good start to the race from sixteenth place on the grid and made up two positions on the opening lap on board his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 machine. The 27-year-old Italian was battling for a finish in the points until lap ten, when he ran off track first and then made his way back to the pits.
After riding through the pain in both FP3 and Superpole 1 and qualifying in fifteenth place, Stefan Bradl decided to sit out the opening encounter of his home round in order to rest his injured elbow and increase his chances to line up on the grid for tomorrow’s race two. The German rider’s condition will be reviewed by the medical centre tomorrow morning before warm up, which is set to get underway at 9:30 local time (GMT +2).
Davide Giugliano 34
DNF
It was a good race for as long as it lasted. At the beginning, with everyone so close together, it was hard for me to be aggressive – it was still my first race with this bike after all – so I lost a bit of ground. Then when the pack opened up a bit, I was able to ride more like I wanted to and my pace improved. My lap times were quite interesting, too, as I was quicker than during the rest of the weekend. It was a shame we were forced to retire with a technical issue: the team is now trying to understand what happened in order to be ready for tomorrow.
Stefan Bradl 6
DNS
No doubt it’s been an unlucky weekend so far. After hitting my elbow hard in yesterday’s FP2 crash, this morning I tried to ride but it could only do a few laps before the pain got too intense and I had very limited movement in the joint. That’s why I had to make the decision of not racing today. I will get some more treatment later at Clinica Mobile in order to get in better shape for tomorrow and try to race.
Pieter Breddels
We kept working with Davide to improve his feeling with the bike and we made some steps forward. In the race he looked a bit more comfortable and his times were quicker, too. It was disappointing that we had a technical problem, and we are currently analysing what happened in order to prepare for tomorrow. With better luck, he’ll be able to enjoy a good second race here at Lausitzring. Stefan decided not to race today as the pain from his elbow was too much. Hopefully that decision will give him time to recover enough to be able to take part in race two.
More, from a press release issued by Althea BMW Racing:
Great recovery by Torres in race 1 at the Lausitzring
Lausitz (Germany), Saturday 19 August 2017
Race 1 at the Lausitzring, a home track for German manufacturer BMW of course, proved to be a mixed bag for the Althea BMW Racing team. Jordi Torres was able to make a great recovery having lost ground at the start, crossing the line ninth, while Raffaele De Rosa suffered a crash mid-race.
Over in Stock1000, Marco Faccani has qualified eighth for tomorrow’s 14-lap race.
Superpole 1: De Rosa completed a first fast lap, in 1’38.758, which positioned him second mid-session; after a tyre change, the Italian was back out, able to improve on his time by a further six tenths. Finishing with a fastest lap of 1’38.194, the Althea BMW rider closed the session third, which translated into 13th on today’s race grid.
Superpole 2: The 1’37.369 set by Torres early on saw him lying seventh prior to the tyre change. In the final stages, on a qualifying tyre, the Spaniard was able to drop his time by a good six tenths, (1’36.739), to qualify in a solid fifth place.
SBK – Race 1: From fifth on the grid, Torres risked crashing through the first corners when the rear of his BMW started to slide around. Forced to modify his trajectory and losing many places as a result, Jordi found himself down in 20th position. With a lot of work ahead of him, the Spaniard immediately started to play catch-up, putting together a series of fantastic passes to climb to 14th by lap six. Over the next laps, his solid pace allowed him to improve further, passing one rider after another to cross the line ninth today.
De Rosa earned a couple of positions off the line, eleventh after one lap. Finding good pace through the first phase of the race, the Italian battled in a group with Laverty and Forés. Unfortunately, on lap 11, Raffaele suffered a crash and although he attempted to continue the race, he was forced to retire a few laps later.
Jordi Torres:
“Superpole went well and I scored a good grid position. I made a good start in the race but at turn 3 I almost lost the rear, losing many positions as a result. The same thing happened another couple of times and I lost confidence in the tyre; we have to look into what happened as it was very strange. I then gradually got back into a rhythm, making up places lap after lap. It’s just a shame about the start because I lost a lot of time getting past riders further down the field; I did what I could in the circumstances.”
Raffaele Da Rosa:
“After the crash in Japan, I’ve continued to feel better, physically-speaking, as the sessions have progressed this weekend. I’m just sorry about today’s crash, I’m discouraged and it’s a shame because the bike was working well and I felt good. I was there with Forés, trying to get into my rhythm and progress but the crash prevented me from continuing. We need to look ahead though and try to make up for this in tomorrow’s race.”
More, from a press release issued by Aruba.it Racing Ducati:
Relentless Davies takes Race 1 at EuroSpeedway Lausitz to seize his fifth win of the season, Melandri is 4th
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team once again took the top step of the podium in Race 1 at EuroSpeedway Lausitz (Germany) with Chaz Davies, who thus clinched his fifth win of the season. After a hectic moment before the start due to a rear-brake issue, the Welshman kept his cool and got off to a strong start from sixth position on the grid. Second at the first corner, Davies took the lead in lap 2 and progressively pulled away from Rea and Sykes by imposing a relentless pace in the low 1:37 mark.
Marco Melandri, fourth on the finish line, faced a more difficult race. Despite a positive start from fourth position, the Italian suffered some issues under acceleration as the rear tyre progressively dropped and was forced to play defense. Melandri will start Race 2 from pole position, while Davies will take 9th position on the grid.
The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team will resume action at 09:30 (CET) tomorrow for warm-up ahead of Race 2 (scheduled to start at 13:00).
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 1st
“The sighting lap was pandemonium, I nearly high-sided going into the last corner because of an issue with the rear brake. That made for a few tense minutes on the grid, because usually you can’t fix something like that in such a short time, but I have a good crew and they fixed to almost entirely, so it was good enough to allow me to do what I needed to do. Then, I got a great start and found myself in a good position in the early laps. Once I took the lead, I just tried to set my pace without looking at the lap times and we came out on top. The rhythm was good, but there is still room for improvement ahead of Race 2. We’ll start from 9th position but I think this track offers opportunities for overtaking and we’ve worked on our starts recently, finding more consistency, so I’m in for another interesting race.”
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #33) – 4th
“It wasn’t an easy race for us. In the first few laps we managed to stay within the leading group, but as the rear tyre dropped our bike started to wobble too much over the bumps and I was forced to ease off the throttle, losing contact with the riders ahead of me. At first, I tried to compensate by braking later to make up for it but, the harder I pushed, the more mistakes I made, and I almost lost the front a couple of times. Our pace was in the high 1:37 mark today, we couldn’t do more and it wouldn’t have been smart to take more risks. Tomorrow we’ll try some setup modifications during WUP. The goal is to stay with our rivals for the whole race.”
Stefano Cecconi, Aruba S.p.A. CEO and Team Principal
“Chaz gifted us with a very emotional win today, because it was a result of both his heart and his brains. After the issues encountered in the sighting lap, it wasn’t easy to stay calm but, thanks also to great teamwork, he managed to regularly start the race and dictate his pace from early on. Unfortunately, Marco struggled more with the bumps and, after a few laps, he was forced to drop the pace a bit. It’s never easy to do a double, but we’ll try our best to put both our riders in a position to win tomorrow.”
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:
Lowes Charges to Top Six Finish in Race 1 at the Lausitzring
It was a mixed Saturday for the Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team at the Lausitzring for round nine of the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship as Alex Lowes pulled off an excellent ride to secure sixth, whilst his teammate Michael van der Mark suffered a loss of rear tyre pressure that saw him cross the line in 15th. Lowes rode superbly to cross the line less than 0.8s off the man in fourth, despite struggling a little on a full fuel load at the start of the race. His teammate van der Mark had a great start during the race, but the rear tyre pressure loss – the reason for which is yet unknown – forced him to drop his pace significantly and he bravely bought his R1 home in 15th place.
Lowes made it directly through to SP2 on Saturday and the 26-year-old was on blistering form, managing to set a 1:36.7745, just 0.653s from pole, to start Race 1 from the head of the third row in seventh. When the lights went out for Race 1, Lowes made a superb start, cutting inside at Turn 1 to move into fifth and breaking away from the rest of the pack with the leading group of five. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite have the front-end confidence he needed on his Pata Yamaha R1 with a full load of fuel and so could not take the fight to the leaders in the opening laps, but instead became involved in an excellent race-long battle with Leon Camier. On lap 4 Camier passed Lowes for fifth, but as the race went on the feeling with his R1 improved dramatically as the fuel load dropped, allowing him to fight back and start to chase down Camier and Marco Melandri ahead of him. Lowes pushed hard in the final laps and closed down the gap to the men in front dramatically but, unfortunately, he ran out of laps, crossing the line in sixth just 0.1s behind the fifth-placed Camier and less than 0.8s behind Melandri in fourth. Due to the new grid rules for 2017, Lowes will line up on the front row for Sunday’s Race 2 in third and is confident the lessons learnt from today will allow him to make a step forward as he aims to secure his third podium of 2017.
His teammate van der Mark had to go through SP1 for only the third time in 2017 after he was unlucky with the timing of a red flag and the subsequent thunderstorm on Friday that saw him finish FP2 in 11th overall. The 24-year-old Dutch rider made a statement in SP1 as he went over 0.5s quicker than the rest of the field on a race tyre to finish the session in first and head into SP2 with his teammate Lowes. He went onto qualify in the middle of the fourth row in 11th and then made a blistering start when Race 1 got underway, blasting his way past a number of riders to be up to eighth by the end of the first lap. While pushing to join the battle at the battle at the front, he ran off track on the second lap and had to rejoin in 16th. Undeterred, the former World Supersport Champion started to battle his way through the field, making it up to 11th before he started to lose pressure in his rear tyre. As the tyre visually deflated, van der Mark bravely carried on, despite advice to return to the pits and retire from the Pata Yamaha team, who were worried for his safety. Incredibly, he managed to bring his R1 home in 15th to salvage a championship point, despite the fact that by the time he reached parc fermé his tyre was completely flat. Van der Mark will, therefore, line up on the grid for Sunday’s Race 2 at the back of the fourth row in 12th, eager to make amends for today’s bad luck.
This result sees Alex Lowes remain fifth in the championships standings with 158 points and extends his lead over the rider in sixth to 18 points. Van der Mark stays seventh in the standings with 130 points, just 10 points behind the rider in sixth place. The Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team are back in action at the Lausitzring on Sunday at 9.30am for Warm Up, with Race 2 scheduled for 1pm.
Alex Lowes
Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team – 6th +16.783
“Today has been pretty good, I am quite happy with my race considering missing the test and yesterday’s dramas! I had a really good race with Leon Camier but, unfortunately, I didn’t quite have the front-end confidence to pass him. Fair play to him, he didn’t make one mistake and did a good job. I learnt quite a lot during the race today, my pace was honestly better than I expected and I think we can make some good steps for tomorrow. I am looking forward to Race 2, the R1 is working a lot better than last year at this track and I feel that I rode well today. I want to say thank you to my team who have done a great job this weekend, let’s see if we can take another step forward tomorrow!”
Michael van der Mark
Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team – 15th +1:04.118
“To be honest I was happy with the way I made it out of SP1 into SP2. I went more than a second faster on my race tyre in SP1 than I had done so far, but in SP2 on the qualifying tyre, I didn’t have a great feeling. I think the rear was pushing the front, so I had to start from 11th on the grid. During the race, I had a good start but I started to struggle with the grip right from the early stages. I then made a mistake, although I am not sure what really happened, I ran off track and then had to fight my way through the field. To be honest, while my pace was not fantastic, it was better than in practice. I just focused on maintaining this pace, but then I started to get slower and slower and the bike was moving around a lot. I just finished the race as every point is vital in this championship, but when I got back to parc fermé I realised I had a completely flat tyre. We obviously have to find out how this happened, which we will work on tonight, and I will give my best again in Race 2 tomorrow.”
Paul Denning
Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team Principal
“It has been a complicated weekend so far here at Lausitzring: thunder, lightning, tropical rainstorms, and some challenging issues also for the team to overcome but I think we have to be – on Alex’s side of the garage anyway – happy with today’s performance. Having not tested here we knew that trying to take the challenge to the top four was going to be difficult but Alex rode a very considered and intelligent race to look after his tyre, be fast but consistent, and in the end that meant missing out on fourth position by only seven-tenths of a second. Good job by him and his team and with this race experience under their belts and a couple more improvements for tomorrow, we look forward to starting from the front row and seeing what we can achieve. Michael did an excellent job in SP1 to do a 1:37.5 lap and dominate the session to make it through to SP2 earlier today. He also made a great start to the race from 11th on the grid, challenging immediately inside the top eight and had a good consistent pace going until, unfortunately, he began to lose pressure from the rear tyre before mid-race. The problem was clear watching from trackside so we became very concerned on the safety aspect and gave him the signal to enter the pits and retire, but typically enough, Michael managed the situation and even though there was only one point to be scored, he made sure he stayed out and achieved that. We are not sure of the cause of the pressure loss, but of course, it is critical that we find that information out as quickly as possible.”