End of season in Superbike: did the riders reach their 2019 objectives ?
What is the outcome of the three World Superbike races contested this weekend on the Losail circuit in Qatar? Site does the accounts and translates the statements of the riders who shone – or not – during this thirteenth and last meeting of the 2019 Superbike season. Do you speak French ?
Every day after the race (three races per weekend in World Superbike now!), The Moto Journal du Net establishes the riders’ classification … This weekend in Qatar and for the second time this season – only ?! -, Jonathan Rea scored the maximum points: 62 (25 + 12 + 25, the count is good).
Thanks to his splendid hat-trick registered in particular against the Ducati rapids n ° 19 and 7, the "Number One" offers his employer his fifth world title in Superbike: Kawasaki can thank Johnny, who is at the origin of half of his success in World Superbike !
The Akashi Greens have won 146 races in the "premier" category of the WorldSBK: 73 thanks to Jonathan Rea, 34 to the credit of Tom Sykes, 14 with Scott Russel, 6 with Anthony Gobert, and so on. Note that Loris Baz contributed twice to this success (doubled from Silverstone in 2013) and his mentor Adrien Morillas once (Hungaroring in 1988).
Loris Baz, in fact, earned 20 points this weekend in the home stretch of the 2019 championship in Losail, against only 4 during his tumultuous and painful ordeal in Argentina. The tricolor n ° 76 doubles Jordi Torres and Sandro Cortese in the general classification, thus reaching an unexpected World Top 10 six months ago.
The Ten Kate team, who arrived during the 2019 season with a motorcycle that was completely unknown to them (the Yamaha R1, after 15 years working on the Honda CBR1000RR), climbed on the podium of the 2019 independent teams! Same success for our "Haut-Savoyard Cheetah" in the drivers’ classification.
Best independent rider this season, Toprak Razgatlioglu ensures his Kawasaki Puccetti team the same status although he entered only one motorcycle (the No. 54, which scored 315 points this year), against two for their main rival. Yamaha GRT (n ° 11 and 33 who scored 311 points).
This final "by night" also saw Alex Lowes retain his third place overall, ahead of his future-ex-teammate Michael van der Mark. Will the English No.22 be able to further raise his level next year at the controls of the five-time ZX-10RR world champion, like Jonathan Rea !?
Second best "scorer" at Losail with 45 points, Chaz Davies takes sixth place from Leon Haslam. Has the Welsh n ° 7 finally grasped the operating mode of his Panigale V4? The only man to have worried Rea this season, Alvaro Bautista will hand over his factory Ducati to British champion Scott Redding to take control of a new Fireblade. Will the Tokyo Reds join those of Bologna at the forefront? ?
While waiting for the 2020 season, Site publishes the reactions – in French! – Top 5 at Losail on Saturday night. MNC also gives voice to the best – or less worst? – representatives of each brand of motorcycles, without forgetting of course our international rider Loris Baz! Do you speak French ?
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki n ° 1), 1st with 62 points
“Seventeen wins this year and two hat-tricks at Donington and here: it’s special, very special. I’m really happy and happy because to be honest we didn’t expect to be beaten that much at the start. in the middle of the season, we thought we had to participate in these last two races with a gap to protect in the championship, but that did not happen. I am really happy with the whole of our bike because in these last two races, with the longest straights in the championship and the fastest circuits we have proven that it takes more than a fast engine to win. I’m super proud of my whole team. This weekend we changed so much times the basic setup, for the first round, the Superpole race then the second round: you wouldn’t believe me if I told you what we did. We flipped the bike over and every time we got a few positives and negatives, it shows just that the operating spectrum of our motorcycle is vast ".
Chaz Davies (Ducati n ° 7), 2nd with 45 points
"The end of the season has been solid for me and I’m very happy to finish on the podium again. I feel like I had another good race tonight after a bad start, but it was very fun to fight with the others in the early laps. I picked up a good pace and started aiming for the front guys. I was able to easily follow Johnny after passing Alvaro, but when I attacked a little more, I encountered problems with the front tire. It was a good ending for the 2019 season and I can’t wait for 2020 to begin ".
Alvaro Bautista (Ducati n ° 19), 3rd with 38 points
"This day was positive, because after the Warm-Up and before the Superpole race, we returned to the settings of Friday. I immediately had a good feeling and the second place was important for the starting grid in second round. I had a fight with Jonathan at the start, but towards the middle of the race I unfortunately started to lose some grip in the rear. I had a hard time slowing the bike down. In the end, I didn’t I couldn’t do anything against Chaz, but all things considered, I’m happy because it’s always nice to finish the season on the podium ".
“I would like to thank Aruba and the whole Ducati team for the fantastic job they have done this year. Unfortunately the season has not gone as we expected but I am very happy to have had my first year in Superbike with this team which has so much experience in this championship, they have helped me a lot. Thank you all, I wish you the best for next year ".
Alex Lowes (Yamaha n ° 22), 4th with 36 points
“It was good to end the season with a good weekend in Qatar. Apart from a bad weekend in Jerez and the crash in Misano, I was consistently in the Top 6 and very strong in every race. goal this year was to finish in the top three in the championship. Everyone wants to be world champion obviously, but you also have to improve from the previous year, keep learning, keep moving forward, and this year has been a good step forward for me. It’s a bittersweet end to the season because I am leaving a team where there is such a good atmosphere, with whom I get along very well and in which I feel like a member of the family.It’s weird to leave Crescent and Yamaha, we will all face new challenges next season, but tonight I’m going to enjoy it, in the company of the guys who have worked so hard for me and helped me to achieve my goal this season ".
Leon Haslam (Kawasaki n ° 91), 5th with 24 points
“We struggled in the second half of the final race because I lost my grip before and I struggled to stop the bike. I kept losing the front, not to deceleration but right as I put the throttle back in. To be honest I felt like I was rolling on eggshells in the corners and when it came to fighting I found myself helpless even though I was there . I’ve had some ups and downs this season, I had a fundamental problem adapting to this bike. Stopping the bike and fighting was a problem for me, and that’s normally one of my strengths . But I had some positive races, good battles in Australia, Misano and Aragon with Johnny. Winning the Suzuka 8H was fantastic. I also had three good battles in the last three races of the year ".
Loris Baz (Yamaha n ° 76), 7th with 20 points
"The Superpole race was very good! I had a good fight and gradually recovered. I stood up to Michael van der Mark, I passed him several times, but he always passed me in the stretch. So I finished just behind … We made a few changes to the bike in anticipation of the second round. I thought it would have paid off, but it didn’t. I was unlucky, I was hit at the start by Leon Camier. I leave last, but I attacked to come back up. I climbed to eighth in the fight for the Top 5. I finished once again just behind the official machines. We were hoping appear on the podium, but it will come ".
"We know our weak points are in the starts and top speed. We will focus on those points during the winter. But I’m happy with my pace in the second run. We managed to make good progress on the bike. . We are tenth in the championship having missed 15 races. A big thank you to the whole team for the work done! I can’t wait to get back to work for next year. I think we can do great things by having a good winter season ahead of us ".
Markus Reiterberger (BMW n ° 21), 10th with 10 points
“We adjusted the bike a bit for the Warm-Up and the session went really well for me. I was third for a long time and finished the session in fourth. It was fantastic. However, the first corner in both races dampened my hopes a bit, even though I had taken off well both times. In the main race, I got stuck between two riders on the first corner. I had to avoid them. which forced me to move aside and cost me a few places. I had a pretty lonely race until the finish, but managed to overtake three drivers and score a few points. At least I did. got a new boost during my last weekend with the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK team which helps me feel a little better before the break. We had a great time and I want to thank everyone for for giving me this opportunity. I wish the project every success and hope to be able to contribute to it again soon ".
Leon Camier (Honda n ° 2), 12th with 6 points
"We need to recheck our data to understand what kind of problem we encountered today, because we’re still not sure. We only made a very small change up front ahead of the second. round but it didn’t work out as we had hoped and on the starting grid we went back to what we had this morning, unfortunately something happened and riding the bike became very, very difficult. I quickly lost a lot of positions and reached the finish in 16th position ".
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