PODIUM FOR REA ON A DAY OF CONTASTING FORTUNES

2013-06-09 17:51
Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team)
rode to an assured race two podium finish with
third place in the FIM Superbike World
Championship event at Portimao in Portugal, after
the disappointment of a retirement in race one.

Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) was
able to start race one despite the pain from his
long-term left lower leg injury but he did not compete in race two.

In the first race, having qualified third in
Superpole and starting from the front row of the
grid, Rea was in contention early on but only
completed eight laps, after encountering a
technical issue with his machine. Marco Melandri
(BMW) won the first 22-lap race.

Haslam had battled weakness in his injured left
leg to ride to 14th in Superpole but he only
completed one more lap than Rea in race one
before pulling in. He had to use a lot of upper
body strength to move his bike around at the very
physical Portimao circuit and this proved to be
almost as much of an issue as his injured leg, so
he did not start the second race.

In race two Rea chased hard on the heels of
leader and eventual race winner Eugene Laverty
(Aprilia) for 17 laps but a drop in pace as his
tyre life got used up allowed Laverty to escape
and Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia) to overtake.
Jonathan had sufficient pace to hold onto a hard
earned third place. This was his second podium finish of 2013.

In the championship standings Rea is seventh with
105 points, 14 points behind sixth placed Loris
Baz (Kawasaki). Haslam is 15th with a total of 29 points.

The next round will take place in Imola, Italy,
on Sunday June 30, with all classes represented once more.


VAN DER MARK THE TOP HONDA RIDER AFTER CLASSIC WSS ACTION

Michael van Der Mark (Pata Honda World Supersport
Team) made a real play to try and win the 20-lap
FIM Supersport World Championship race at
Portimao but had to give best to the trio of
riders who had led the race from the start. Sam
Lowes (Yamaha) won his fourth race in a row, with
Kawasaki riders Fabien Foret and Kenan Sofuoglu just behind.

Michael, who had qualified in sixth place for a
second row start, had to pick his way forward at
good pace and finally got into contention. All
the same he had to settle for fourth place, which
puts him fourth in the overall rankings, one
place ahead of his team-mate Lorenzo Zanetti
(Pata Honda World Supersport Team).

The battle for the race win was thrilling for the
sparse crowd with van Der Mark finally pleased to
have been able to run up front yet again with the
most experienced WSS riders in his rookie season.

Lorenzo suffered a big crash on Saturday,
injuring his shoulder and putting him a lowly
24th on the grid. He fought back to finish 14th
and score two points but it was a frustrating day
for the Italian rider after some recent good showings on raceday.

Sheridan Morais (PTR Honda) put in a season best
of fifth today after qualifying on the front row.
From third on the grid he was in the leading
group early on but even after making what he felt
was an imperfect tyre choice he was fifth, and
second best Honda rider behind van Der Mark.
Morais was nine seconds down at the flag and is now 11th in the points.

Rookie rider Jack Kennedy (Rivamoto Honda) had to
overcome pain from a right leg injury after
hitting a high kerbstone with his knee on
Saturday and he finished a career equalling best
of sixth place in the race and holds eighth in the championship with 44 points.

Raffaele De Rosa (Team Lorini Honda) continued to
work well in the WSS class by qualifying and
finishing in ninth place. One off rider and local
favourite Miguel Praia, who expanded the Lorini
Honda team to two riders this weekend, joined him
on the grid. Miguel finished 20th.

With Zanetti 14th Luca Marconi (PTR Honda)
finished off the top 15 and scored a point, with
David Linortner (Team Honda PTR) 16th and young
rider Matt Davies (Team Honda PTR) 17th.

A luckless day for Gabor Talmacsi (PRORACE Honda)
saw him retire with a technical issue. He is now 24th in the points table.

HONDA RIDER COMMENTS:

Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team)
Race result: DNF / 3rd Championship position: 7th
“It’s been a frustrating weekend, yet again, but
we have a podium to take away from it and I’m
quite happy to get back into the podium way. I
set a really good pace in the first part of race
two and the bike felt really good but, as soon as
the grip dropped, the electronics were playing
havoc. I can’t turn the traction control up
because I slow down even more and, if I turn it
off, the bike becomes unrideable. Race one was
also disappointing because we’re just having too
many mechanical problems this year. It was
frustrating to go through that when I was
fighting in the top five and two good circuits
for us have now been and gone and we haven’t been
able to capitalise. Imola is another strong
circuit for us, so hopefully we can be back up
here again. I want to thank Chris Pike my crew
chief and everyone who keeps digging deep and
working hard, and all the fans for their support,
which means a lot at the moment when we’re finding it tough.”

Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike Team)
Race result: DNF / DNS Championship position: 15th
“A tough weekend, really, when I’ve been
struggling with power in the leg. The knee bend
was pretty good, but I just struggled in race one
with fatigue in the rest of my body. I couldn’t
use my leg properly, so the manhandling of the
bike that’s needed round here was done pretty
much using my upper body. You don’t realise how
much you use your legs on the bike until you
can’t use one of them! It’s a little frustrating,
but I got eight or nine laps in before I was
completely done, and I managed to pass a few
people, like Leon Camier, who finished fourth.
We’ve made progress from Donington and we have
another three weeks until Imola. We’ve also been
keeping up to speed on the electronics, which
will be useful in the races to come. If I sat out
three or four races it would take my head three
or four races more to get back up to racing speed.”

Michael van Der Mark (Pata Honda World Supersport Team)
Race result: 4th Championship position: 4th
“I think anything could have happened on those
last two laps. My start was great. But in the
first few corners I lost some positions and it
took some time to get through. When I passed the
guys in front I tried to get to the leaders but
we were doing similar lap times so I could not
catch them quickly. I knew at the end they would
fight for the win so I closed the gap then and I
had a nice battle with the front guys. The bike
was fast on the straight so it was easy to pass
them but on the last lap I almost lost the front
but stayed on. I finished fourth and that was the
kind of result we needed after two bad races.”

Lorenzo Zanetti (Pata Honda World Supersport Team)
Race result: 14th Championship position: 5th
“This had been a completely bad weekend for me
because I arrived here after two positive races
and this should be a good track for me. Anyway, I
found it only possible to fight for a top 15. The
bike was OK and the potential of the team and me
is not reflected in this kind of result. We will
restart working towards Imola to return to the front.”

Jack Kennedy (Rivamoto Honda)
Race result: 6th Championship position: 8th
“I got a good start and was up where we needed to
be in the front group. When van Der Mark and
Morais came past I pushed to go with them. I held
on for a few laps until I made a small mistake.
Once I knew they had gone, I pretty much
controlled the race by reading my pit board. I
knew there was a group behind but I really wanted
6th. I was lacking a bit of confidence and my
knee was pretty sore but it’s been a great
weekend. The Rivamoto Honda has worked well once
again and the team have been fantastic.”

Sheridan Morais (PTR Honda)
Race result: 5th Championship position: 11th
"I tried hard today and while fifth is not what
we wanted, it is a step in the right direction
and we can get our heads down and keep improving.
For some reason we seemed to struggle for rear
traction in the race, which we hadn't done in
qualifying and warm up. We have proved we can
challenge at the front and the results will come
as we continue to work hard as a team."

Matt Davies (Honda PTR)
Race result: 17th Championship position: NA
“At least I finished where I started the race
although I made a mess of the first corner after
a good start. I also made another mistake across
the back of the track. It was All OK and I came
from 26th on the first lap. I am happy with that
aspect so I will try to move on for Imola.”



RESULTS

SUPERSPORT
RACE : (Laps 20 = 91,840 Km)
POS / RIDER / NAT. / TEAM / MOTORCYCLE / GAP
1 / S. LOWES / GBR / Yakhnich Motorsport / Yamaha YZF R6 / 35'32.882
2 / F. FORET / FRA / MAHI Racing Team India / Kawasaki ZX-6R / 0.38
3 / K. SOFUOGLU / TUR / MAHI Racing Team India / Kawasaki ZX-6R / 0.502
4 / M. VD MARK / NED / Pata Honda World Supersport / Honda CBR600RR / 1.322
5 / S. MORAIS / RSA / PTR Honda / Honda CBR600RR / 9.537
6 / J. KENNEDY / IRL / Rivamoto / Honda CBR600RR / 11.772
7 / A. ANTONELLI / ITA / Team Goeleven / Kawasaki ZX-6R / 13.535
8 / L. SCASSA / ITA / Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres / Kawasaki ZX-6R / 13.953
9 / R. DE ROSA / ITA / Team Lorini / Honda CBR600RR / 14.728
10 / C. IDDON / GBR / ParkinGo MV Agusta Corse / MV Agusta F3 675 / 18.756
11 / V. LEONOV / RUS / Yakhnich Motorsport / Yamaha YZF R6 / 18.909
12 / M. ROCCOLI / ITA / Team Pata by Martini / Yamaha YZF R6 / 32.012
13 / A. BALDOLINI / ITA / Suriano Racing Team / Suzuki GSX-R600 / 32.039
14 / L. ZANETTI / ITA / Pata Honda World Supersport / Honda CBR600RR / 32.118
15 / L. MARCONI / ITA / PTR Honda / Honda CBR600RR / 33.152

Fastest Lap: 12° Kenan Sofuoglu 1'45.730 156,353 Km/h
Lap Record: 2010 M. Pirro 1'45.180 157,170 Km/h
Best Lap: 2010 K. Sofuoglu 1'44.683 157,920 Km/h

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TILL DATE:
1 LOWES 120, 2 SOFUOGLU 81, 3 FORET 81, 4 VD MARK 62, 5 ZANETTI 55,
6 SCASSA 53, 7 ANTONELLI 46, 8 KENNEDY 44, 9 ROLFO 38, 10 MARINO 31,
11 MORAIS 30, 12 RUSSO 28, 13 LEONOV 26, 14 COGHLAN 22, 15 IVANOV 18.


SUPERBIKE
RACE1: (Laps 22 = 101,024 Km)
POS / RIDER / NAT. / TEAM / MOTORCYCLE / GAP
1 / M. MELANDRI / ITA / BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK / BMW S1000 RR / 38'12.447
2 / S. GUINTOLI / FRA / Aprilia Racing Team / Aprilia RSV4 Factory / 0.007
3 / T. SYKES / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 4.224
4 / L. CAMIER / GBR / Fixi Crescent Suzuki / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / 9.479
5 / L. BAZ / FRA / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 12.057
6 / C. DAVIES / GBR / BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK / BMW S1000 RR / 16.61
7 / M. FABRIZIO / ITA / Red Devils Roma / Aprilia RSV4 Factory / 21.35
8 / J. CLUZEL / FRA / Fixi Crescent Suzuki / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / 22.337
9 / C. CHECA / ESP / Team Ducati Alstare / Ducati 1199 Panigale R / 23.662
10 / F. SANDI / ITA / Team Pedercini / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 1'26.995
11 / V. IANNUZZO / ITA / Grillini Dentalmatic SBK / BMW S1000 RR / 1'27.119
12 / I. CLEMENTI / ITA / HTM Racing / BMW S1000 RR / 1'29.096
13 / M. NEUKIRCHNER / GER / MR-Racing / Ducati 1199 Panigale R / 3 Laps

Fastest Lap: 3° Eugene Laverty 1'43.062 160,401 Km/h
Lap Record: 2010 M. Biaggi 1'42.774 160,850 Km/h
Best Lap: 2013 T. Sykes 1'41.360 163,090 Km/h

RACE2: (Laps 22 = 101,024 Km)
POS / RIDER / NAT. / TEAM / MOTORCYCLE / GAP
1 / E. LAVERTY / IRL / Aprilia Racing Team / Aprilia RSV4 Factory / 38'02.051
2 / S. GUINTOLI / FRA / Aprilia Racing Team / Aprilia RSV4 Factory / 4.107
3 / J. REA / GBR / Pata Honda World Superbike / Honda CBR1000RR / 5.853
4 / L. BAZ / FRA / Kawasaki Racing Team / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 15.306
5 / C. DAVIES / GBR / BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK / BMW S1000 RR / 17.552
6 / C. CHECA / ESP / Team Ducati Alstare / Ducati 1199 Panigale R / 18.366
7 / J. CLUZEL / FRA / Fixi Crescent Suzuki / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / 29.392
8 / A. BADOVINI / ITA / Team Ducati Alstare / Ducati 1199 Panigale R / 38.359
9 / D. GIUGLIANO / ITA / Althea Racing / Aprilia RSV4 Factory / 39.321
10 / M. FABRIZIO / ITA / Red Devils Roma / Aprilia RSV4 Factory / 44.603
11 / M. NEUKIRCHNER / GER / MR-Racing / Ducati 1199 Panigale R / 45.339
12 / M. MELANDRI / ITA / BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK / BMW S1000 RR / 45.429
13 / F. SANDI / ITA / Team Pedercini / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 1'16.310
14 / A. LUNDH / SWE / Team Pedercini / Kawasaki ZX-10R / 1'16.375
15 / V. IANNUZZO / ITA / Grillini Dentalmatic SBK / BMW S1000 RR / 1'18.303

Fastest Lap: 6° Tom Sykes 1'42.475 161,319 Km/h
Lap Record: 2010 M. Biaggi 1'42.774 160,850 Km/h
Best Lap: 2013 T. Sykes 1'27.378 165,750 Km/h

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TILL DATE:
1 GUINTOLI 213, 2 SYKES 185, 3 LAVERTY 174, 4 MELANDRI 156, 5 DAVIES 133,
6 BAZ 119, 7 REA 105, 8 FABRIZIO 101, 9 GIUGLIANO
79, 10 CLUZEL 72, 11 CAMIER 62,
12 NEUKIRCHNER 53, 13 CHECA 50, 14 BADOVINI 45, 15 HASLAM 29.



NEXT EVENT: ROUND07, JUNE 30, IMOLA, ITALY

Source: Honda Pro Image

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