WorldSBK Lausitzring tests: no lap times, only happiness
Four major WSBK teams rode two days at the Lausitzring (Germany), the circuit which will host the next World Superbike 2017 event from August 18 to 20. No time was revealed… So everyone is delighted! Balance sheet and declarations.
Page 1 – 8H of Suzuka Vs 2 days of Lausitzring
The five-week long World Superbike summer break was interrupted by two days of private testing (Tuesday and Wednesday) held at the Lausitz circuit in Germany. Two and a half weeks after the Laguna Seca event and two and a half weeks before the resumption on the same Lausitzring, some Superbikes were able to stretch their connecting rods…
Others unfortunately were not so lucky: the S1000RR of the BMW Althea team did not move from the workshop, just like the F4 of the MV Agusta factory. At Yamaha, if the official WorldSBK R1s have stayed with the MotoGP M1s in their garage in Italy, their riders at least will be able to spend on the Endurance model. !
On the other side of the planet, in fact, Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes will take turns this weekend with Katsuyuki Nakasuga in order to secure for their employer a potential and historic treble at the 8H Suzuka. But the n ° 60 and 22 will not be the only international stars to want to make their number…
Sylvain Guintoli, Randy de Puniet, Jack Miller, Leon Haslam, Josh Brookes, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Raffaele de Rosa, Anthony West, Dominique Aegerter, Sheridan Morais, Christian Iddon, Nobuatsu Aoki, Yuki Takahashi are also participating in the 40th edition of the legendary event japanese.
This enticing list is naturally completed by the experts from SERT and GMT94 who are playing for the world title in this final, and by members of the Honda Endurance Racing, YART, Bolliger Team Switzerland, Eva RT Webike Trickstar teams….
In the FCC team TSR Honda was also to line up Stefan Bradl, but an inner ear problem prevented him from flying to Japan. To make matters worse, the German driver had no time to turn around and take part in the summer tests in his own country. "Ach, sheisse"…
Their n ° 6 not being – originally – not available, the Honda WSBK team had called on their development driver Michele Magnoni as well as his compatriot Davide Giugliano. The latter, exiled this year in British Superbike, could return to WorldSBK to replace the late Nicky Hayden.
Obviously satisfied with the work accomplished by the former Ducati official, the boss of the WSBK program at Honda is seriously considering this possibility (read the first statement on the next page). Alone – big – weak point in the candidacy of the Roman: his annoying tendency to get down….
This season again, the hot n ° 34 – Schwantz can be proud of the bursts of his Italian double! – was injured during practice of the second test and has not participated in a race since, his team (BMW Tyco) and him even deciding to separate last month.
Once again operational, Giugliano is both looking for a handlebar for next year, and free for the end of this season … These two days in Germany, to test new fairings and different electronic strategies, have – they convinced the Ten Kate team, their sponsor Red Bull and the Tokyo Reds ?
At the Noale Reds, the two titular riders were present: Aprilia does not have an Endurance program – oh well, why? – and currently trying to gain pure speed in order to return to the level of their cousins from Bologna, the only ones to compete with the Greens of Akashi currently…
Back in World Superbike this year, Eugene Laverty first took advantage of this test to take his marks on a track he did not know. Very experienced, the Irishman quickly integrated the track and would have ended up running under the best time in the race posted in 2016 by Chaz Davies Himself (1 ‘37.357 as a reminder).
"Yudjine" and his teammate Lorenzo Savadori have concentrated on the front end of their RSV4 which has been a problem for them since the start of the season. Supported by Aprilia Racing, the two drivers of the Milwaukee team would have made great progress on this point, which would have improved the bike as a whole. So much so that the n ° 50 is aiming for the German podium…
Like Laverty, Melandri was discovering the Lausitzring, but at the controls of the excellent 1199 Panigale R. "Excellent" with the gloves of Chaz Davies certainly, but a hint less in the yet expert hands of Marco who squat less frequently on the podiums. WorldSBK2017 with the Kawasaki.
Thanks to these tests, the famous Italian n ° 33 was able to see that the German track with its very bumpy character was not so easy to grasp … Whether in the dry or the wet for that matter. Last year already, the second race took place in the rain and the weak grip trapped a large number of riders. "Attenzionne" !
On the other side of the Ducati box, the n ° 7 believes he has made new progress. Will these allow him to repeat his breathtaking end of the 2016 season? For the record, in the last eight races, only one victory had escaped him: it was in the second German round, in the wet precisely.
Finally, Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes were also present. Unlike last year when they had to train on "stock" models, the two Ninjas were accompanied by their racing ZX-10RRs, the Lausitzring appearing in their list of test tracks this year..
Leading the championship since the very first race, "Johnny" is 59 points ahead of his teammate "Major Tom". Impressive, this advance can however be reduced to nothing by a tiny blunder and a technical glitch … Sykes knows it and conscientiously maintains the pressure on his best enemy. !
The English n ° 66 is also the only driver to have communicated his best time (1 ‘36.7), very proud according to him to have equaled on race tires his time set last year on soft rubber in Superpole. . In fact, the memory of the 32-year-old pilot is already playing tricks on him….
In 2016, in fact, the German qualifiers were contested on a not-entirely dry track, which fatally hampered the drivers. "Super" Sykes had nevertheless set the second fastest time of the event behind Davies … and far ahead of Rea who exceptionally had to take part in SP1 !
In the first round, the "Number One" of the discipline had fallen because of a false neutral point and had not scored a single point, for the second race in a row … His gear worries had fortunately let him down in second round: the ruthless "JR" had won, and was relaunched towards his second world coronation.
The resumption of WorldSBK in Germany will be just as decisive for Rea this year. Like Yamaha at Suzuka, the Kawasaki rider is aiming for a hat-trick … but his is unique: no World Superbike rider, not even Fogarty, Bayliss or Corser, has retained his crown for three years in a row.
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