WorldSBK U.S. Round: Rea Wins the Superpole Race, but Yields to Davies in Race 2, While Bautista has a Weekend to Forget and Pirelli Achieves Satisfaction with the New SCX Solution
Sixth Race Win in a Row for Rea who Pulls Ahead in the Championship by 81 Points over Bautista
SALINAS, California (July 14, 2019) – The Californian weekend of the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship, hosted by the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, ended with two wins for Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki and one for Chaz Davies on Ducati.
After winning Race 1 on Saturday, the four-time World Champion of Rea also won the Tissot Superpole® Race on Sunday morning, but was unable to defeat Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) in Race 2. On the other hand, for the other rider representing the manufacturer from Borgo Panigale, Álvaro Bautista, it was a weekend to forget with a crash in Race 1 and a DNF in Race 2 when he was forced to retire on the third lap. The Spaniard, who was the favorite for the world title in the early part of the year, is now 81 points behind Rea and will be forced to make a difficult comeback after the summer break, in the hopes that his rival is unable to finish consistently on the podium, as he has so far.
Worth a mention is the excellent performance by the talented young Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) who, with his two third place finishes in Race 1 and Race 2 and his fourth place in the Tissot Superpole® Race, confirms his status as the best of the private team riders.
Pirelli can consider itself to be very satisfied with the race results at Laguna Seca, particularly in terms of the new SCX solution. This option, which Pirelli introduced in the Championship just this year as a pre-qualifying option to be used in Superpole®and in the 10-lap sprint race, was not only used by practically all the riders at Laguna Seca in the Tissot Superpole®Race, but it showed that it can also last the 25 laps of the standard-distance races, proving to be very competitive.
The Tissot Superpole® Race, starting at 11:00 a.m. local time with Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in pole position, lost one of its key players as early as the first lap when Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) tumbled disastrously to the ground just a few meters after the start due to contact with the rear tire of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) who was overtaking him. Then, on the following lap, an accident at the top of the Corkscrew involving Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team / Honda CBR1000RR) and wild card JD Beach (Attack Performance Estenson Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R1) forced race direction to red flag the race, bringing the action to a halt.
The three riders involved in the accidents wound up in the medical center and were unable to be on the grid for the restart, which anticipated an eight-lap race.
As in Race 1, in this sprint race, Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) once again started well and managed to maintain the race lead from start to finish, winning with a 2.5 second gap ahead of Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) and 3.6 seconds ahead of Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR) who, unlike in Race 1, succeeded in snatching the bottom step of the podium from Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) who finished fourth ahead of the other factory Kawasaki ridden by Leon Haslam.
WorldSBK Tissot Superpole® Race standings:
1) J. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
2) C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
3) T. Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR)
4) T. Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
5) L. Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
6) A. Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1)
7) L. Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R1)
8) J. Torres (Team Pedercini Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
9) L. Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
10) M. Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1)
11) S. Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1)
12) M. Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR)
13) M. Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
14) E. Laverty (Team Goeleven / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
15) R. Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team / Honda CBR1000RR)
16) M. Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1)
NS) A. Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team / Honda CBR1000RR)
NS) J. Beach (Attack Performance Estenson Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R1)
NS) Á. Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
In Race 2, the order of the riders on the podium changed, but the faces were the same as those in Race 1. Winning this second race was Welshman Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) who, unlike in Race 1, chose the same tire used by Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR), managing to overtake him on the inside at the first turn after the start and then maintaining the race lead all the way to the checkered flag. With the exception of this pass, throughout the rest of the race, the riders in the front maintained the positions taken at the start, with the reigning World Champion, after winning Race 1 and the Tissot Superpole® Race, finished on the second step of the podium more than three seconds behind Davies. Finishing third was Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) who repeated his performance from Race 1, once again the best independent team rider. Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1), Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR) and Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) completed the top-six race finishers.
After crashing in the Tissot Superpole Race, Bautista attempted to partake in Race 2 anyway, but made a bitter return to pit lane, retiring on the third lap. The same fate awaited Michael Van Der Mark on the sixth lap.
WorldSBK Race 2 standings:
1) C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
2) J. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
3) T. Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
4) A. Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1)
5) T. Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR)
6) L. Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
7) L. Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R1)
8) J. Torres (Team Pedercini Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
9) M. Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1)
10) M. Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
11) L. Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura / Kawasaki ZX-10RR)
12) E. Laverty (Team Goeleven / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
13) M. Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW S1000 RR)
14) S. Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1)
15) R. Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team / Honda CBR1000RR)
16) J. Beach (Attack Performance Estenson Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R1)
17) A. Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team / Honda CBR1000RR)
RT) Á. Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R)
RT) M. Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1)
The Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders for WorldSBK Tissot Superpole®Race and Race 2:
In the Tissot Superpole® Race, rider choices were rather unanimous. At the start, practically all the riders had chosen the combination of the standard SC1 125/70 tire (option A) on the front and the SCX (option X) on the rear. The exceptions were Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) and Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR), who used the Y0446 SC0 development solution (option A) on the rear, and Ryūichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team / Honda CBR1000RR) who, instead of the SC1 on the front, went with the X1071 SC2 development tire (option B). At the restart, Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) also opted for the SCX rear, leaving Rea as the only rider on the grid mounting the Y0446 SC0 development tire. Also worth a mention is the change made by Delbianco, opting for the X1071 SC2 development tire at the restart, as Kiyonari had.
On the other hand, the choices for Race 2 were different, with the riders making various changes compared to Race 1. On the rear, Davies and Eugene Laverty went from the SCX (option X) to the Y0446 SC0 development tire (option A) and the standard SC0 (option B) respectively, unlike Leandro Mercado, Markus Reiterberger, Beach and Kiyonari, who switched to the SCX (option X). In the end, the grid was split equally for the rear among the three available solutions, whereas on the front, the standard SC1 125/70 (option A) remained the tire chosen by all the riders except for Kiyonari.
Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Tissot Superpole® Race:
• Winner of the PIRELLI BEST LAP AWARD: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), 1’22.700 on the 2nd lap
• Most used front solution: standard SC1 125/70 (17 out of 19 riders)
• Most used rear solution: SCX (18 out of 19 riders)
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tires: 260.8 km/h, achieved by Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team / Ducati Panigale V4 R) on the 6th lap
• Air temperature: 18° C
• Asphalt temperature: 36° C
Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Race 2:
• Winner of the PIRELLI BEST LAP AWARD: Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R), 1’22.976 on the 3rd lap
• Most used front solution: standard SC1 125/70 (18 out of 19 riders)
• Most used rear solution: development SC0 Y0446 200/65 (7 out of 19 riders)
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tires: 261.4 km/h, achieved by Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Barni Racing Team / Ducati Panigale V4 R) on the 7th lap
• Air temperature: 15° C
• Asphalt temperature: 46° C
