World Superbike Race Lap Record: Jonathan Rea, 1:27.605, 2016

World Superbike All-Time/Pole Lap Record: Tom Sykes, 1:26.641, 2017

Motul FIM Superbike World Championship

Donington Park, England

July 5, 2019

Free Practice Two Results (all on Pirelli tires):

1. Tom Sykes, UK (BMW S1000RR), 1:27.733

2. Alex Lowes, UK (Yam YZF-R1), 1:27.751

3. Toprak Razgatlioglu, Turkey (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:27.775, crash

4. Jonathan Rea, UK (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:27.812

5. Leon Haslam, UK (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:27,859

6. Alvaro Bautista, Spain (Duc Panigale V4 R), 1:28.005

7. Sandro Cortese, Germany (Yam YZF-R1), 1:28.235

8. Loris Baz, France (Yam YZF-R1), 1:28.257

9. Chaz Davies, UK (Duc Panigale V4 R), 1:28.414

10. Jordi Torres, Spain (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:28.483

11. Peter Hickman, UK (BMW S1000RR), 1:28.567

12. Marco Melandri, Italy (Yam YZF-R1), 1:28.631

13. Michael Van Der Mark, Netherlands (Yam YZF-R1), 1:28.810

14. Leandro Mercado, Argentina (Kaw ZX-10RR), 1:28.929

15. Michael Rinaldi, Italy (Duc Panigale V4 R), 1:29.005

16. Alessandro Delbianco, Italy (Hon CBR1000RR SP2), 1:29.800

17. Ryuichi Kiyonari, Japan (Hon CBR1000RR SP2), 1:30.357

18. Eugene Laverty, Ireland (Duc Panigale V4 R), 1:30.409

More, from a press release issued by Dorna:

#GBRWorldSBK– Day 1

Sykes ends Day 1 on top at Donington Park whilst championship contenders battle behind

An immense opening day at the Prosecco DOC UK Round sees top 13 covered by less than a second at the British circuit

With beautiful sunshine beating down on the Donington Park circuit, WorldSBK took to the track for their second Free Practice session of the day. With a flurry of activity early in the session, most of the top riders improved before settling down for the remainder of the 50-minute encounter. Like in FP1, Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) ended the session on top, confirming his pace and putting himself as a firm favourite for success throughout the rest of the weekend.

Coming into FP2 as the man to beat, Sykes took to Donington Park and showed his prowess and why he is the King of Donington Park. The Huddersfield rider, who has nine victories at the circuit in WorldSBK, set a lap time with 13 minutes to go and improved his time from the morning session. His teammate for this weekend, Peter Hickman, put in a good day’s work at Donington Park and finished the day in 12th.

In second position was Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team), who was flying the Yamaha flag high inside the top three. The British rider put in a strong lap time at the end of the session to finish just 0.018s away from Tom Sykes at the top. Lowes’ teammate, Michael van der Mark, made his return to action and had a comparably quiet FP2, finishing in eleventh position come the end of the day.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) was improving steadily all the way through the session, with his incremental steps rewarding him with second at the end of the session and less than half a tenth of a second behind Sykes at the top. He ended the day as top Independent rider, despite a small crash at the end of the session, ahead of the likes of Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) in seventh, Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha) in eighth and Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) in tenth.

Fighting hard to try and get an advantage on his rivals, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was in fourth at his home event. The four-time WorldSBK champion was less than a tenth off the pace but down in fourth, at a track which he has won at only once for Kawasaki, during Race 2 in 2017. Home-hero teammate, Leon Haslam, was solidly placed inside the top five, looking to get back on the podium at home.

The ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati team finally came to play, although not with the scorching pace they’ve sported at other rounds this season. Alvaro Bautista only managed to get into sixth come the end of the day, having finished down in 11th after the morning session. The championship leader has work to do, especially with main championship rival Jonathan Rea ahead of him after day one. Chaz Davies’ struggles continued, although the Welshman placed ninth at the end of the day.

Notable names outside the top ten included Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK), who was only 13th, whilst Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team) was down in 15th. Top Honda honours went to Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team) in 16th, whilst Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven) was 18th and last on his return, following nearly two months on the sidelines with two broken wrists. 

More, from a press release issued by Barni Racing Team:

Tricky Friday for Barni Racing Team at Donington

Castle Donington (UK), 5th July 2019. Tricky start for Barni Racing Team at Donington Park circuit, where the eighth round of MOTUL FIM WorldSBK championship is taking place. With spring-like temperature, 23 °C on the air and 43 °C on tarmac, Michael Rinaldi ended fifteenth in the combined results after the two free practice sessions. In FP1 Michael was stopped at the box for a long time and He was able to complete only 11 laps, marking his fastest time in 1’29.999.

In the second free practice session, still looking for a better set-up, the rider of Santarcangelo di Romagna was able to improve his best time by almost a second (1’29.005) riding for 19 laps, but being still away from the best riders.

The FP3, scheduled on Saturday morning at 9 am, will be important for Rinaldi to improve his feeling on the saddle of his Ducati Panigale V4 R, looking at the qualifying session (11 am) and than race 1 ( 2 pm).

Marco Barnabo, Team Principal

Due to the characteristics of the circuit this is a very complicated track for us, but it seems to be tough for Ducati in general. We are still looking a setup that fit for the track combined with Michael’s riding style especially with used tyres, but we have to improve even in the qualifying lap time.

Michael Rinaldi

Our setup that is working very well since Jerez is not good for Donington. That’s why we are a little bit in trouble and far from the position we use to be. We worked a lot and the situation at the end of the day is better but we are still too far from the first. Tomorrow a big step forward is necessary to be competitive.

More, from a press release issued by Moriwaki Althea Honda Racing:

Round 8 kicks off in perfect weather conditions at Donington Park.

The opening day of the WorldSBK UK round kicked off today with ideal, sunny conditions at Donington Park, where the first two free practice sessions of the weekend played out.

Ryuichi Kiyonari spent the two sessions trying some different changes on his bike, setting the sixteenth fastest lap time in the morning and concluding the day in seventeenth position with a best lap time of 1’30.357.

Tomorrow will see Kiyonari back aboard his CBR1000RR, which from this round until the end of the season will be sporting the Honda Racing 60th Anniversary logo, for Free Practice 3 at 09:00 local time followed by the Superpole qualifying session, set to get underway at 11:00, and then Race1 at 14:00.

Ryuichi Kiyonaru

17TH 1’30.357

“Today I was in and out of the garage during the two free practices, trying to best exploit my solid knowledge of this track and better understand the bike’s reactions to several changes that we wanted to implement. Our aim was to gather as much information as possible, to improve rear grip through the fast sections and brake stability through the slow ones. Tomorrow we’ll put all this together in the final free practice session and see how it goes”.

More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:

Strong Start for Lowes on Opening Day at Donington Park

Free practice

Pata Yamaha WorldSBK rider, Alex Lowes, got his home race weekend off to a flying start at Donington Park, ending the opening day in second place and only missing out on topping the timesheet by the narrowest of margins. Incredibly, teammate Michael van der Mark made his return to action today, just ten days after undergoing surgery on a fractured right radius. The Pata Yamaha rider ended the day in 11th position but is confident of improvement tomorrow.

Lowes was quickly up to speed in FP1 this morning, which he finished in third place despite a high-speed crash at the infamous Craner Curves towards the end of the 50-minute session. The 28-year-old Briton and his crew made small set-up changes for the second free practice session this afternoon, in which Lowes improved his lap time by over half a second, to end the day in second place and just 0.018s behind compatriot Tom Sykes.

It was a tentative van der Mark who exited pit lane to test his injured right wrist in FP1 this morning, but the 26-year-old experienced no pain from the injury and complained only of slightly restricted mobility on his return to the pit box after his first run. Despite the cautious start van der Mark was an impressive fifth at the end of the 50-minute session. The Pata Yamaha rider was unable to improve his lap time as he worked on refining the set-up of his R1 in FP2 this afternoon but is confident of improvement ahead of WorldSBK Race 1 tomorrow.

Cortese discovered once again today just how different a circuit looks from behind the screen of the Yamaha R1 compared to the R6 Supersport machine he rode to victory at Donington Park 12 months ago. The 29-year-old ended FP1 in 14th position, but then made a significant improvement in FP2, as he quickly adapted to the demands of racing a Superbike around the unforgiving Donington circuit, to end the day in seventh position.

It proved a difficult opening day for Melandri, who struggled with front-end chatter in both free practice sessions today. It proved frustrating for the Italian, as the chatter meant he was unable to make any headway with the set-up of his R1 at a track he rates as one of his strongest and the one at which he took his first ever WorldSBK race win aboard the Yamaha R1 back in 2011. Melandri is hopeful that he and his crew will find a solution tonight, ahead of Superpole and Race 1 tomorrow.”

Alex Lowes

Pata Yamaha WorldSBK – P2 – 1’27.751

“it’s great to be here and riding in front of my home crowd. I feel really good on the bike, even with the little tip off this morning. I say little, but you don’t have a small crash at Craner Curves. It was my mistake; I crashed on a cold tyre after a slow lap, so sorry to the guys for giving them some unexpected extra work today. This afternoon the bike felt good again, but I still want to improve the braking phase a bit more tomorrow, to give me a little more margin. It’s been a positive day, I’m happy with where we are and it’s also good to see Michael back on the bike so soon after his injury. It shows just how tough he is.”

Michael van der Mark

Pata Yamaha WorldSBK – P11 – 1’28.529

“I think I was more nervous ahead of FP1 today than I am before a race. I was pretty confident the injury wouldn’t be a problem, but you never really know until you’re actually on the bike. I felt good on the bike from the start, with no pain, but I am missing a little bit of mobility, which means I can’t move around the bike quite so well. Every lap I was feeling a bit better but I’m not as smooth as normal and that made it a little difficult to get the bike set-up. In the afternoon we tried to improve the bike, to make it a little smoother and easier to ride and, while I didn’t manage to improve my lap time, this wasn’t really the goal. I did a lot more laps than I was expecting today; this morning before FP1 I would have been happy to pick up some points in the races, but now I think we can target the top ten.”

Sandro Cortese

GRT Yamaha Supported WorldSBK – P7 – 1’28.235

“The difference between riding Donington on a Superbike compared to the Supersport bike is huge, which means I’ve had quite a difficult first day adapting and learning the lines on the R1. This is a difficult track because if you mess up turn one then you mess up virtually your whole lap, because it’s one rhythm, but step by step we understood what we have to do. We worked on the tyre choice and also on the set-up, because I was feeling better after every run and we had to change the settings to reflect that. The rhythm is not quite there to lap at the same pace consistently for race distance, so this is what we need to work on tomorrow. Learning a new track on the R1 takes some time, but I think we’re in a good position now for tomorrow.”

Marco Melandri

GRT Yamaha Supported WorldSBK – P13 – 1’28.631

“Today was a difficult day because I was struggling so much with chatter; in the fast corners, in the slow corners, everywhere. Until we fix this problem it’s difficult to understand how we can improve, because I can’t really ride how I want to. So, not an easy day, but we’ll look for a solution overnight and try again tomorrow.”

More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:

Rea And Haslam Inside The Early Top Five

KRT riders Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam finished fourth and fifth fastest respectively after one day of track action at their home round at Donington Park. The top placed Kawasaki rider was Toprak Razgatioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing), in third place.

In a very close FP2 session almost all of the top riders improved their best lap times, with Rea just 0.079 seconds from pole and Haslam only 0.126 back from the fastest rider.

Both sessions were held in relatively warm conditions, with the afternoon track temperature rising to an unusually high 43°C at this British circuit. The fastest 13 riders finished within a second of the top rider after two 50-minute sessions at the relatively short 4.023km long track.

The very nature of the Donington layout breaks the track into two distinct parts, with a fast and undulating main section, then a final sector with three instances of heavy braking and slow corners.

Rea and Haslam will continue to find the best set-up possible for each of these track characteristics. The Donington asphalt has been resurfaced in a few narrow but key corner apex or entry sections, adding to the complexity of pre-race preparations compared to 2018.

The final FP3 session will take place on Saturday morning, followed by Tissot Superpole qualifying and then a full 23-lap Race One, scheduled for 14.00 local time in the UK.

Jonathan Rea, stated: “I was able to do a long run this afternoon and I felt great physically, which was a positive after the first day. The bike was more difficult to ride this morning and I struggled to get any weight onto the front to help the bike turn, especially in the fast areas. I also went back a little bit with my riding position, because I felt I had so much weight on the rear of the bike. I was getting traction but it was not finishing the corner in the best way. This afternoon I felt very comfortable, my rhythm was much faster and I was doing it comfortably – which is always nice here. We are not far away for the first day, really, so we will keep working.”

Leon Haslam, stated: “The track felt quite different because I don’t think I have ever been here when it was hot! I know this track so I know where I need to be and where I am struggling with the set-up. We made a positive step from this morning’s session in that area, so we are closing the gap. Getting the bike to stop and then squirt out of that last section was my main priority and we bridged the gap to the front to about a tenth. We made a good step from the morning to the afternoon.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) showed strong single lap and race pace from the start today and was the top ranked Ninja ZX-10RR rider of all; third. This is the track he scored his first WorldSBK podium finish at last year and he has arrived ready for another strong weekend in the UK. Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki) was tenth in his Ninja while Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) was 14th fastest of the 18 riders at Donington – and just 1.196 seconds from the very best Friday time.

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

The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team wraps up the opening day of free practice at the Donington circuit with sixth and ninth quickest times respectively for Álvaro Bautista and Chaz Davies

The two Aruba.it Racing – Ducati riders took part in today’s opening free practice sessions for the eighth round of the Superbike World Championship at the Donington Park circuit; points leader Álvaro Bautista was sixth quickest with team-mate Chaz Davies ending the day in ninth.

Bautista, who took to the track for the first time here on a Superbike, set eleventh quickest time this morning, preferring to get to grips with the undulating Donington track. In the afternoon, the 34-year-old from Talavera de la Reina took a fair chunk off his earlier time, ending the day in provisional sixth place.

With some difficulty, Chaz Davies concluded the morning session in twelfth place. In the afternoon, despite improving his time by almost one second, the Welshman was ninth quickest in a tight provisional classification that sees the top 13 riders separated by just under nine-tenths of a second.

Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #19) – 1’28.005 (6th)

“For sure the memories I had with this track were much different, and with the Superbike it seems that all the track is narrower and there is not a lot of space to make a mistake. In any case I’m quite happy because in the morning I spent some time trying to understand the track better, gaining some reference markers with my Panigale V4 R and in the end it wasn’t too bad. Then in the afternoon we made a few modifications to improve the set-up because earlier I had struggled to make the bike turn well. We found something that gives me a good feeling and I improved our lap time and our pace. There is still margin to improve but it was a good first day.”

Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7) – 1’28.414 (9th)

“It was quite a good start, we made progress from the morning to the afternoon and I improved my lap time by almost one second. We are still clearly missing something in the feeling with the bike, but we are not as far behind with the race pace as the position looks in the standings. Donington is quite a different track to the previous one at Misano, but we seem to be suffering from similar problems in the same areas. For the moment we are about on par with expectations but hopefully we’ll improve tomorrow.”

More, from a press release issued by BMW Motorrad World Superbike Team:

Tom Sykes dominates day 1 at Donington Park for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team

05.07.19

Donington Park Circuit

The BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team took to the Donington Park Circuit with positive energy, following a successful maiden podium of 2019 in Misano just fortnight ago. The morning’s FP1 session was extremely hot for the UK, allowing Sykes and replacement rider Peter Hickman to work on set-up and try different configurations. The pair had a good session with Tom Sykes topping the timings in P1 and Hickman respectively in P9 whilst lapping his fastest lap around the 4.02Km circuit (1’28.974)

In the afternoon’s FP2 session the emphasis was to build on a good race pace for Tom, whilst on the other side of the garage Hickman worked on getting his BMW S 1000 RR adjusted to suit him with only having ridden the bike for one session. Tom Sykes got faster and faster throughout the afternoon setting the quickest lap a few minutes before the end of the session and holding onto 1st place overall. Meanwhile Peter Hickman was able to improve on his FP1 timing to go -0.300 tenths faster putting him in P12 on combined times.

With Tom Sykes dominating day one here at Donington Park it puts the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team in good stead heading into qualifying as they hope to push for the first pole of the season.

Shaun Muir – Team Principal

“A fantastic day. Tom was P1 in the first session and by a good margin, he then followed it up in FP2 to stay top, however didn’t get the best use of his second tyre so the gap did close up but happy with the progress made by the guys today. Tomorrow we will look to consolidate his position, we will make a few changes going into FP3 overnight and hopefully bag a front row start and a pole position.

On the other side of the garage it’s an absolute revelation. Pete Hickman’s jumped on the bike for the first time and gone the fastest he’s ever gone around Donington Park on his first exit. He’s made good progress in each session, hasn’t done anything drastic and looks to be enjoying his riding. So overall very happy with Pete who is exceeding our expectations so far this weekend”.

Tom Sykes (GBR)

“This has been coming, we’ve been building and building and in Misano I feel we didn’t get what we deserved because we had three podiums in us. Coming into Donington its really a circuit of two halves, there’s four sectors and the first two sectors you need one bike and in the last two you need a completely different one… but after the first run this morning I came in and said the boys they’ve done a great job in getting the bike well balanced to suit the track, so a big thanks to the whole BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team.

We made a few changes in FP2 in preparation and I didn’t really have to go chase a lap time which is positive. I feel sooner or later we will add to the “49 superpoles” tally and tomorrow we will have a good go at it”.

Peter Hickman (GBR)

“I’m happy enough with today. It’s all new however the bike feels fairly similar to what I’m running in BSB. We have a lot more adjustability on this bike along with the electronics so it’s a lot different in some areas. I’m really happy to get into the 1’28’s this afternoon, it’s the fastest I’ve been around here with a 1’28.567, so half a second faster and I’m looking towards the top 6….so I’ve got to be happy with the progress on day 1.

Tomorrows a different day, I’ve not rode on the ‘Q’ tyre in a long time as we don’t run that in BSB so that’s going to be interesting, I don’t have an aim as such but I’m just going to keep chipping away and let’s see how our lap time goes and where we end up in the race”.