#ItalianWorldSBK: “THE TARGET FOR TOMORROW IS TO GO CONSIDERABLE FASTER”
After a turbulent Saturday with the weekend’s first race, the Honda rider didn’t make it more than to tenth.
The series´ ninth race took place under good conditions but with increasingly warmer temperatures on Saturday at lunch time. For Stefan Bradl, however, the day started with a fright when he crashed during FP3 in the morning. Fortunate, he escaped harmless but on the other hand, his bike had only scrap value. So, this means once again a lot of work for the team’s mechanics to rebuild a completely new bike during the short break until Superpole1.
During this 15-minutes long time hunt for the last chance to qualify for Superpole2, which is to decide the top spots on the grids in the first four rows, the 27-year-old German showed up quite unimpressed by the previous happenings as he posted fastest lap time in Superpole1. This was why he made the leap into Superpole2 for the second time in his rookie season in FIM Superbike World Championship. Bradl qualified for twelfth on the grid finally. Race 1 itself didn’t went as spectacular for him. Lacking track knowledge and in acceleration were obviously his handicap to finish better than in tenth place. The race was red-flagged due to an incident involving Irish rider Eugene Laverty after twelve laps.
Race two on Sunday is also scheduled for 1:00 pm and can be viewed in Free-TV in Central Europe via Austrian’s broadcaster ServusTV. It’s programme, however, starts already 30 minutes earlier.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team, Honda CBR1000RR SP2), 10th – Championship position 11th (41 points):
“Things didn’t go quite well again today, honestly. The crash this morning, of course, did affect a little bit my confidence, as well as we had to use the old engine when rebuilding the bike. So, the handling was completely different during the race for which it took some laps to find my rhythm. The race itself was rather boring from the start. I didn’t really have a chance to take action into the happenings. Mostly I was riding alone and I made too many mistakes.”
“Shortly before the race was red-flagged, I lost one position on Roman (Ramos). In the end, however, this was a help for me to follow another rider. So, I was able to see something and find the way how to ride more consistent throughout a lap. But our main problem was still present. In corner exit, our bike is not good enough in acceleration. Therefore, I tried to make up this disadvantage under breaking. Unfortunately, this target did not work out completely because I have made some mistakes. Hopefully, I’m able to convert all this things during tomorrow’s race in a better way in order to be faster out there. One half of a second in terms of lap times is clearly the minimum.”
#ItalianWorldSBK – Results Race 1 (12 Laps):
1 Chaz DAVIES / GBR / Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale R / 21´21.371
2 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki ZX-10R / +6.696
3 Marco MELANDRI / ITA / Aruba-it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale R / +9.287
10 #6 Stefan BRADL / GER / Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team / Honda CBR1000RR SP2 / +34.585
WorldSBK Standings:
1 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / 215
2 Tom SYKES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / 144
3 Chaz DAVIES / GBR / Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale R / 136
11 #6 Stefan BRADL / GER / Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team / 41