#ItalianWorldSBK: LESS REWARDS DESPITE GREAT STAYING POWER
During Sunday’s race two at Imola, Stefan Bradl was slowed by massive gearbox issues.
The 27-year-old Superbike rookie from Germany experiences a frustrating season so far. After crashing on Saturday morning, where Bradl escaped harmless but his bike including the new more powerful engine were total damaged, he was able to bring home another top ten finish. On Sunday morning, however, when the weather was fine again, the world looked gloomy again. He endured already during the 15-minutes long warm up session niggling gearing problems, which despite intensive efforts could not sort out untill the race’s starting time at 1:00 pm. The fact that the race was stopped by red flags just during the opening lap because of an engine breakdown by another rider’s bike and restarted after 40-minutes interruption didn’t matter at all. By the way, the organizers and track marshals did a great job during the entire weekend in terms of safety after that many interruptions due to engine issues.
The Superbike World Championship is set to continue in two week with its visit to the English circuit at Donington Park.
#6 Stefan BRADL (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team, Honda CBR1000RR SP2), 14th – Championship position 12th (43 points):
“It was again a race, about which is not much to say. My start and the first lap were ok. But under breaking for the chicane in lap two, I made a mistake because I didn’t know in which gear I was in this moment. So, for this my race was gone because I had to struggle all distance long with these gearbox issues. Every time in gearing, I had to push the gear in, as well as in down shifting the gearbox went into neutral. Yesterday, the same gearbox worked faultless, but these problems appeared already during warm up this morning.”
“We tried to fix it during the break till the race by the electronics in order to extend somehow the endurance of the gearbox but unfortunate without any success. This engine, which we must use for the completely rebuild bike, already lasts since four events. So, no one can be accused of this. After such an durability, the gearbox is simply worn out. In the end, it was a bad race for us during which I never was able to set decent lap times due to these problems as well as many mistakes in my riding were logical consequences. With P14 and two more points we come out of it partly well.”
#ItalianWorldSBK – Results Race 2 (18 Laps):
1 Chaz DAVIES / GBR / Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale R / 32´12.361
2 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki ZX-10R / +3.739
3 Tom SYKES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki ZX-10R / +4.342
14 #6 Stefan BRADL / GER / Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team / Honda CBR1000RR SP2 / +54.649
WorldSBK Standings:
1 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / 235
2 Chaz DAVIES / GBR / Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale R / 161
3 Tom SYKES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / 160
12 #6 Stefan BRADL / GER / Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team / 43
Next race: 27/28 Mai, Donington Park / Great Britain