Success for Caricasulo in WorldSSP600, Deroue in WorldSSP300 and
Tamburini in STK1000. Yamaha mathematically clinches the WorldSSP600
Manufacturer Championship, Kawasaki in WorldSSP300 and BMW in the STK1000
Championship
Portimão (Portugal), 16 September 2018 –
Jonathan Rea is increasingly closer to the world championship title. Today, the Northern Irish
Kawasaki rider won Race 2 as well in the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship, held at the
Autodromo Internacional do Algarve of Portimão, thereby giving the manufacturer from Akashi a splendid double win that is also very important in view of the Manufacturer Championship.
In the other categories, on the other hand, the Manufacturer Championships have already been clinched mathematically with Yamaha victorious in WorldSSP600, Kawasaki in WorldSSP300 and BMW in European Superstock 1000. The other protagonists of the weekend were Italians
Federico Caricasulo and Roberto Tamburini,
respectively winning the WorldSSP600 and STK1000 races, and Dutchman Scott Deroue who took the WorldSSP300 race win.
As of this weekend,
Pirelli on the other hand drew important information on the larger size solutions developed from mid-season. In fact, the 200/65 rear was used by all the riders in both races, while the 125/70 front was by far the most popular of the available tyres. These are significant signs for the tyre manufacturer which, in just a few races, managed to provide new solutions unanimously popular with the riders.
In
Race 2, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) started off extremely well from ninth place and by the end of the first lap he was already third behind
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing –
Ducati) and teammate
Tom Sykes. Then came Ducati riders
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing –
Ducati) in fourth and
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team) in fifth place.During the fifth lap, Rea overtook Sykes to move into second place, just a half a second behind Davies.
In the meantime, Marco Melandri also managed to get past the Kawasaki rider, moving into third position behind his teammate and the defending World Champion.
From the mid-race point on, the leading trio got closer and closer, with less than three tenths of a second separating them. On the twelfth lap, Rea managed to overtake Davies, moving into the lead. In the meantime, Marco Melandri overtook his teammate, but
Michael Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team), who had gotten dangerously close to the Ducati riders in the meantime, with a single move managed to overtake both of them, moving in behind Rea.
On the fourteenth lap, Toprak Razgatlioglu crashed out to end his race prematurely.
The finale held no further surprises, and
Jonathan Rea went on to win the race with an advantage of more than one second over
Michael Van Der Mark and almost three ahead of
Marco Melandri.
WorldSBK Race 2 standings: 1) J. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)2) M. Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
3) M. Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
4) C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
5) T. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
6) L. Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia)
7) E. Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia)
8) M. Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team)
9) L. Baz (GULF ALTHEA BMW Racing Team)
10) X. Forés (Barni Racing Team)
11) A. Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
12) J. Gagne (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team)
13) J. Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)
14) L. Camier (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team)
15) L. Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura)
16) Y. Hernandez (Team Pedercini Racing)
17) P. Jacobsen (TripleM Honda World Superbike Team)
RT) J. Smrz (Guandalini Racing)
RT) T. Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
RT) R. Ramos (Team GoEleven Kawasaki)
At 1:45 PM local time, the
FIM Supersport World Championship race was held with
Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team) in pole position.
At the start,
Jules Cluzel (NRT) got on the throttle well from the fourth spot on the grid, moving into the race lead already on the first lap. Mahias managed to limit the damage, holding onto second place ahead of
Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing). During the second lap, things got exciting: Cluzel was forced to abandon the race due to contact with Sandro Cortese (NRT) who, however, managed to rejoin the race. This meant that reigning champion, Lucas Mahias was in the lead, and at the mid-race point, Italians
Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team) and
Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag) were behind him, while in the meantime Cortese managed to move up to tenth place.
At the start of the fifteenth lap,
Kyle Smith (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda) managed to get past Raffaele De Rosa, taking a virtual spot on the third step of the podium. On the penultimate lap, Lucas Mahias punctured the rear tyre and was forced to retire just before the red flag came out for an accident involving Hartog and Quiero Martinez which ended the race.
The final order rewarded
Federico Caricasulo with the victory, finishing ahead of
Kyle Smith and
Raffaele De Rosa. With this result,
Yamaha has mathematically clinched the World Manufacturer Championship title in the WorldSSP600 class with three races still left in the season.
WorldSSP600 standings: 1) F. Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team)2) K. Smith (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda)
3) R. De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag)
4) R. Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team)
5) S. Cortese (Kallio Racing)
6) H. Soomer (Racedays)
7) A. Badovini (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag)
8) T. Gradinger (NRT)
9) H. Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
10) H. Barbera (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
11) L. Stapleford (Profile Racing)
12) M. Pons (H43 Team NOBBY DENSO)
13) J. Van Sikkelerus (GEMAR Team Lorini)
14) C. Stange (Team GoEleven Kawasaki)
15) S. Hornsey (Profile Racing)
16) J. Iturrioz (Team GoEleven Kawasaki)
17) K. Nagao (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
18) A. Coppola (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Junior Team)
RT) L. Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team)
RT) B. Quero Martinez (EMPERADOR Racing Team)
RT) W. Tessels (Chromeburner Wayne's Racingteam MtM)
RT) C. Perolari (GMT94 Yamaha)
RT) N. Calero (Orelac Racing VerdNatura)
RT) A. Murley (GEMAR Team Lorini)
RT) I. Lopes (ENI Motor 7 Pequeno Motos)
RT) P. Sebestyen (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda)
RT) J. Cluzel (NRT)
DSQ) R. Hartog (Team Hartog - Against Cancer)
The penultimate
Supersport 300 World Championship race started at 12:45 PM local time with Tom Edwards (Nutec - Benjan – Kawasaki) in pole position. Championship leader
Ana Carrasco (DS Junior Team) started from the ninth spot on the grid, but it was immediately clear that she was struggling to get into the race and she ended up finishing tenth. Winning was Dutchman
Scott Deroue (Motoport Kawasaki) who, with this bounty of 25 points, reduces the gap in the overall standings, moving in directly behind Carrasco, the latter in any case holding onto the lead by 10 points. Finishing behind Deroue were Mika Perez (Kawasaki ParkinGO Team) and Manuel Gonzalez (Pertamina Almeria BCD Junior Team by MS).
Noteworthy is Kawasaki's mathematical victory in the Manufacturer Championship. The
Superstock 1000 European Championship race was the first of the day and started at 11:45 AM local time. There were seventeen riders on the starting grid with
Federico Sandi (MOTOCORSA Racing) in pole position ahead of championship leader, German
Markus Reiterberger (Alpha Racing-Van Zon-BMW). In the end, however, gaining the upper hand was Italian rider
Roberto Tamburini who, astride his Berclaz Racing Team BMW S1000RR was the first to see the chequered flag, finishing ahead of pole man Sandi, second, and Reiterberger, third. Thanks to this result, the BMW riding German remains the championship leader with an 18-point advantage over Roberto Tamburini and 19 ahead of Chilean Maximilian Scheib (Aprilia Racing Team), only fifth in the race today. The final round in Magny-Cours will therefore be fundamental for awarding the category title.
BMW is mathematically the winner in the Manufacturer Championship. The Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders for WorldSBK Race 2 and WorldSSP: In
Race 2, the riders substantially confirmed the choices they had made in Race 1. In fact, on the
rear, as in Race 1, all the riders used the
X0175 SC0 development solution (option B) in the larger size introduced by Pirelli for the first time in the Brno race and then also taken to Misano.
On the
front, the
X0417 SC1 development tyre (option B) in the larger 125/70 size was confirmed as the most used option, as demonstration of its excellent potential. Those who did not use this solution opted, as they did yesterday, for the well-known
V0952 (option A).
In the
WorldSSP race, 2/3of the riders on the grid opted for the
standard SC0 (option A) on the
rear, whereas for the front, the
X0012 SC1 development solution (option B) obtained the highest approval rating by a landslide.
Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Race 2: • Winner of the
PIRELLI BEST LAP AWARD:
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)in
1'42.385 at the 2
nd lap
• Most used front solution:
development SC1 X0417 (15 out of 20 riders)
• Most used rear solution:
development SC0 X0175 (20 out of 20 riders)
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres:
309.6 km/h, achieved by Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in the 8
th lap
• Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class:
6 front and 9 rear Number of tyres available for each Superbike rider:
85, including 42 front and 43 rear • Air temperature:
29° C • Asphalt temperature:
45° C Pirelli statistics for WorldSSP race: • Winner of the
PIRELLI BEST LAP AWARD:
Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team), in
1'45.220 at the 2
nd lap
• Most used front solution:
development SC1 X0012 (17 out of 28 riders)
• Most used rear solution:
standard SC0 (24 out of 28 riders)
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Supercorsa tyres:
285.9 km/h, achieved by Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team) in the 2
nd lap
• Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSSP class:
5 front and 5 rear Number of tyres available for each WorldSSP rider:
51, including 26 front and 25 rear • Air temperature:
28° C • Asphalt temperature:
45° C