WSBK – MNC analysis of World Superbike in the Netherlands – Rea ” hits ” rivals seriously

Posted on by admin

MNC analysis of World Superbike in the Netherlands

WSBK - MNC analysis of World Superbike in the Netherlands - Rea '' hits '' rivals seriously

Beyond the points distributed, each race weekend brings its share of remarkable feats and poor performances, good and bad surprises. In its analysis, Site reviews the highlights of the WSBK in Assen.

Rea ” assen ” a serious blow to his rivals

Third in the championship with 122 points, Tom Sykes will have to shine at Imola in order to stay in the title race. Like Giugliano, the English Ninja is one of the drivers who faulted during the first Dutch race … But he had not done so for 26 races !

Saturday morning, however, "Major Tom" seemed placed in orbit: the famous n ° 66 had won his third Superpole of the season and relegated his closest rival to more than half a second! That didn’t stop his teammate Rea from winning by first-round knockout…

The next day, the 2013 world champion was unable to respond, the fault of his poor choice of tire replacement: his intermediate rear tire did not allow him to accelerate as hard as the slick selected by Jonathan. Sykes fought like an ogre, but it was the new Green giant who won.

Rea, in fact, gained momentum throughout the weekend: sixth to a second and a half behind the leader Lowes at the end of the first day, the "Number One" of the discipline again passed by the first grid in the Nederlands.

Cleverly staying in Davies’ wheel for most of the first run, Jonathan was able to attack when needed … and just right, which was far from obvious on a dry track admittedly, but lacking. of gum due to the "Wet" test sessions.

And even when the elements broke the next day, Rea was left sole master on board, scoring his fifth straight win on the Assen TT circuit. A 34th victory which allows him to overtake Troy Corser on the shelves of World Superbike …. Next target: Noriyuki Haga and his 43 victories.

Another record that Jonathan can hope to beat in 2018 (!): The 12 victories of Fogarty on the same circuit, that of Assen precisely. Since yesterday, the counter of "JR" shows 9 victories in Assen. It must be said that the Northern Irishman feels at home there after his seven years with the Honda Ten Kate team….

Although passed at Kawasaki for two years, the former n ° 65 is still as well received on the beaten ground. But this year, he was aware that most of the public had come to support the local child (-bas): Michael van den Mark, his former teammate…

"Kudos to @mickeyvdmark, it’s clear he helped fill the places the most yesterday", recognizes the 2015 world champion, stressing that"the dutch crowd was crazy !", thus creating a"great atmosphere in @WorldSBK !"

Excited last year to see their Supersport world champion fight for victory from his first participation in "his" races in the Superbike category, fans of "Magic Michael" on Saturday cheered their idol as if he had won the race … when he had crashed on the last lap !

Moved by this ovation, the young Honda rider was therefore delighted the next day to be able to greet his courageous supporters from the podium. Because they too defied a wind to lift the skirts of the Umbrella Girls, a hail to pierce the tanks of Fireblade and a temperature to make tulips wither !

After a thunderous start to the season – three podiums in four abseiling races – and a less sparkling race in Aragon, the phenomenal "VDM" took advantage of his second home event to follow in Jonathan Rea’s footsteps….

As a reminder in 2014, the northern Irishman finished an impressive third place in the WorldSBK championship riding the aging CBR1000RR. While waiting for the new Fireblade to take over – expected in 2017, like the GSX-R1000 – Team Ten Kate would have managed to extract 9 horsepower from the Tokyo 4-cylinder. This will be enough to allow Van den Mark to aim for the Top 3 this year too ?

Honda’s new VDM teammate Nicky Hayden also took the podium. This is a great first for the 2006 MotoGP world champion who arrived this year in World Superbike … with the firm intention of becoming the first rider to win the title in both motorcycle speed categories..

For the record, the "Kentucky Kid" becomes on this occasion the 117th pilot to slash Proseco champagne. Site readers – who, as everyone knows, have a little more memory vice than the others – remember that Nicky’s last Top 3 went back to the 2011 Jerez GP, which was particularly eventful because it was contested in the rain. !

American Superbike fans who had woken up on Saturday morning were well rewarded: the last podium of an American rider in World Superbike dates even longer: the first Portuguese round in 2009, won by Ben Spies Himself !

Sunday morning also, the compatriots of n ° 69 undoubtedly did not stay in place in their sofa bed since Nicky animated the whole start of the race: "It was very nice during the first laps in the wet", he tweeted on his official Twitter account.

"A fortiori I should have come home earlier to put on slicks, but the rain was threatening again so it was not easy to stop", observes Hayden, adding to conclude that"the rain reappeared in the last lap". Damned !

Before taking stock of the French clan – both sporting and medical, unfortunately – let’s salute the great performances of Leon Camier and Lorenzo Savadori who took turns at the foot of the podium on Saturday and Sunday. Both were successful at Assen !

The only rider of the official MV Agusta team first benefited from four crashes at the forefront to give the Varese firm its best result in World Superbike. The English n ° 2 did not spare his mount, however, since he turned almost a second faster in the first round than in Superpole..

What to erase his disappointment in Aragon where "Lioness" endured too many breakdowns on his F4 RC. In terms of time at Assen, he remains half a second behind the Top 3 and was 15 seconds behind Jonathan Rea at the end of the 21 laps. What will happen to Imola ?

Same question about Lorenzo Savadori who had recorded his best result in the WSBK on Saturday (6th) and improved his mark the next day during the dantesque second round. In two weeks, the Superstock 1000 champion will ride in front of his people. Enough to further increase its performance ?

Finally, it should be noted that for the 13th time in the history of the World Superbike, six manufacturers shared the first six places on Saturday in the first round: far behind the Kawasaki of Rea, Ducati of Davies and Honda of Hayden, the MV Agusta of Camier. was in fact ahead of Torres’s BMW and Savadori’s Aprilia. The only thing missing was the Yamaha…

Related articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *