Superbike, Losail: What a way to end the season!!
Tough weekend for WorldSBK, only half of the action took place in Qatar due to unexpected weather!
Only one race, Friday in Superbike… with the cancellation of the Saturday race due to weather conditions.
Results differed from the expectations for the Nolan Group riders, both Chaz and Marco came close to the podium on Friday. But will be far more disappointed to not have the chance to make it up for the next day.
More spectacular was the Supersport class, with Federico Caricasulo on the podium again and close to victory, grabbing 3rd with a performance that allowed Yamaha to bring home the world’s constructors championship title!
Next up is he 2019 tests… but first our riders will be guests at EICMA Milano you are welcome to come visit us and see these riders!
Superbike
Marco Melandri FIFTH
“Going into this round, I wasn’t expecting the kind of race we had today, and unfortunately it was tough for all Ducati riders. We couldn’t really do what we wanted with the bike, we were struggling to stop and turn it, and we also had some issues with traction. Due to that, I had to ride more aggressively and the tires dropped down a lot. Tomorrow we’ll start from first row, which is better, but we still need to improve the setup with the rear to put up a challenge. Warm-up will be important to this end. We’d like to finish strong.”
Chaz Davies EIGHTH
“We started a bit behind after a tough qualifying and then we began to make our way back. I eventually caught up with Marco and Xavi, closing up on them in the middle part of the race, but then I started to feel the front tucking with five laps to go and it got progressively worse. Our priority is to finish second in the championship so I just tried to hold position. Once Baz passed me, I saw ‘final lap’ on the display on the finish line, even though it was shown too early by accident, so I closed the throttle once I was over the line in the following lap. I lost a point and a position on the grid for tomorrow, which is a bit disappointing, but we also need to improve to finish stronger in our last race of the year.”
Supersport
Federico Caricasulo THIRD
“It was a difficult weekend because from the first session I was missing around one second to the frontrunners. In the race I felt much better in sector three where I’d been losing all my time previously and I was much faster as a result. My start wasn’t great and I was 11th in the first corner, but then I managed to push to get back towards the front. The three guys ahead of me towards the end had a little bit too much of a gap for me to catch them, but I’m happy to have finished the last race of the season on the podium, after what started as a very difficult weekend for me. Congratulations to Sandro on the championship and thanks to my team for their hard work and dedication this season.”