WSBK – World Superbike: Ninja Sykes dominates Jerez’s trials – Guintoli finally comes out of stealth mode!

Posted on by admin

World Superbike: Ninja Sykes dominates Jerez trials

WSBK - World Superbike: Ninja Sykes dominates Jerez's trials - Guintoli finally comes out of stealth mode!

On the handlebars of his 2016 ZX-10R, Sykes sets the best times of the two days of WSBK test in Jerez (Spain). He precedes the official Ducatis and the two Honda’s while in his R1, Guintoli finished 8th behind the 2015 champion Rea. Explanations.

Guintoli finally comes out of his stealth mode !

Since their debut on the R1, Sylvain Guintoli and Alex Lowes have been training without a transponder. This time in Jerez the official Yamaha were officially timed and "it went well !"reassures Sylvain.

Credited with the eighth fastest time in 1’40.018 (see all the times on the last page), the n ° 50 of the new Yamaha Pata Crescent team is just over a second behind his best enemy, Tom Sykes. A chasm at this level of competition, but an acceptable gap at this stage of the season…

Paul Denning is particularly confident about "Guinters": the boss of the Blues in Superbike has peeled the timesheets of his foal and considers that the best is yet to come: "when a rider is this consistent it usually means he keeps some in the grip in terms of performance".

After keeping his two pilots in stealth mode during the last WSBK tests in 2015, Mister Denning said: "we are now looking forward to going to Australia to see Sylvain more in race mode than in test mode and climb the next ranks".

For his part, Sylvain lists the points discussed on Tuesday and Wednesday: "new swingarm, riding position, back-shifting, engine brake strategies, new forks with various setups, traction control, we’ve done a lot !", he realizes.

The 2014 WSBK champion also tested the assist at the start. Filmed in the exit of the pit lane by his faithful right-hand man Bruno Vecchioni, Sylvain calculated that his R1 brought down the "0 to 100 km / h in 2.6 seconds !"Enough to make the hole shot? Checking for the first Australian race !

While our compatriot completed 109 laps of the Andalusian circuit, his teammate Alex Lowes had to settle for 79 laps. "I was limited by my shoulder", regrets n ° 22 Yamaha:"I couldn’t attack too much, but I had fun and hope we can improve a bit before Phillip Island".

The 2013 British Superbike champion, however, posted the ninth fastest time in practice, a quarter of a second behind Guintoli. He is comfortably (half a second) ahead of new British champion Josh Brookes.

Always supervised by the Milwaukee team, the Australian pilot trades this winter his R1 devoid of traction control (they are crazy, these BSB pilots!) For an S1000RR clad in electronics … The Jerez tests were the first for the English team in WSBK, and the first for Josh since 2007 !

"These two days have been positive", estimates the new n ° 25 of the world championship Superbike."I quickly adapted to the bike and can feel it has a lot of potential", warns the" Bad Boy "of which it will be necessary to be wary from Phillip Island, since he will drive at home…

"We focused on getting the bike ready and collecting the data and I would say at this point we’re exactly where we want to be in terms of consistency and pace. We learned a lot about the bike in a short period of time, and finishing in the Top 10 is a good result.", Joshua analyzes.

Brookes’ teammate Karel Abrahams is 13th behind Leon Camier’s sole MV Agusta and James Ellison’s Kawasaki BSB. "Two days ago, I had not even put my butt on the motorcycle", emphasizes Karel,"but I already have a good feeling about what she can achieve".

Like the Kawasaki factory team, the BMW Milwaukee team will travel to Aragon next week to continue winter testing. Abrahams is eager to get there: "I had to adapt my style a bit, but the bike is giving good feedback and I haven’t had any problems so far". Hope it lasts !

Sylvain Barrier also made his first outing on his new 2016 mount: the ZX-10R of the Pedercini team, on which he sets the 15th time in practice. Members of the same team this year, Jeremy Guarnoni (20th) and Christophe Ponsson (22nd) were running their Ninja in Superstock configuration.

Finally in the Supersport category, the quadruple world champion Kenan Sofuoglu sets the best time (1’43.091), turning faster than Peter Hickman and his British Superbike ZX-10R! Kenan’s young Kawasaki Pucetti teammate Randy Krummenacher is just half a second away from Turkish.

23rd in the scratch classification and fourth in the SSP, Jules Cluzel completed only 63 laps at the controls of his official F3, 24 less than his teammate Lorenzo Zanetti (21st). Our "Coq Supersportif" was visibly rolling on the reserve in Jerez … Can’t wait for Phillip Island to get loose !

Related articles

Leave a Reply

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