Pata Yamaha Maintain 100% Podium Record in STK1000 at Donington

2017-05-29 21:16
The Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team maintained their 100% podium record in the 2017 FIM Superstock 1000 European Championship at Donington Park this weekend, round four of the season. Florian Marino rode superbly to finish in second, while his teammate Roberto Tamburini fought back during the race to cross the line in fourth.

Marino ended Friday's practice in third overall, but a huge crash in FP3 saw his team have to completely rebuild the bike for qualifying. They did an amazing job and the French rider managed to qualify on the front row in third for Sunday’s race. A tricky start saw the 23-year-old fight his way through the field with some excellent overtaking manoeuvres. Remaining focused he worked his way up to second, but despite his best efforts could not close the gap to the leader. Marino crossed the line in second, just 1.813s behind the eventual winner and with a gap of over two seconds to the rider in third.

Tamburini dominated Friday's practice, finishing both sessions on top of the timesheets. On Saturday, he qualified in second to join his teammate on the front row for the race, but made a set up change with his R1M that meant he struggled to find the same confidence during the opening laps. As the race went on, his confidence returned, as did his feeling with the older tyres and he immediately started to pick off the riders in front of him one by one. The 26-year-old staged a brilliant fightback to secure fourth, just 5.399s behind the race winner, to round off a great weekend for the team.

These results mean that Marino and Tamburini are now level in the championship standings in third with 56 points after four races, just 23 points behind the leader. Up next for the Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team is round five of the 2017 FIM Superstock 100 European Championship at Misano on the 16th-18th June.

Florian Marino
Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team
I am happy because this weekend has not been so easy. First of all, it was quite difficult for me to be as fast as my teammate throughout the whole weekend, he was very dominant. I had a crash in FP3 and destroyed my bike completely, and the team worked so hard to put it all back together in time for qualifying. They deserve all the credit really, they managed to rebuild it in a short space of time and it worked perfectly during qualifying with no issues whatsoever. So, I want to give a big thanks to my two mechanics and the whole team for their incredible efforts. In the race, I didn't have that good a start, and the first lap was tricky. After that I felt a bit down, I didn't want to let my team down after all their hard work, so I just tried to keep my focus and gave my best. When I had got into second place, Toprak already had a good advantage. I tried to push to make up this time, but our pace was quite similar and I just didn't have enough to catch him. I am happy with second after the mistake I made in Imola, and I did not want to push too hard and make the same mistake here. It is a very good result for the team and the championship and I am really looking forward to the rest of the season now. Misano can be a very good track for both me and the R1M. In this championship, there are lots of Italian riders and we know they will be quick there. I will focus on myself and the bike from Friday's FP1, to make sure we have the best package possible to fight for the race win.”

Roberto Tamburini
Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team
I have felt good all weekend and had a good start in Friday's practice. On Saturday, I had a good qualifying and started the race from the front row, which is important at Donington. We made some changes to the R1Ms suspension for the race, to allow us to turn the bike better, but unfortunately, the conditions on Sunday were different than before. This meant that at the beginning of the race the bike was not as easy to ride and we could not quite get it stopped, but as the race went on everything became a lot easier. The first few laps were very hard, hence why I dropped back at the start, and when the feeling came back with the bike I was too far behind to push for the win, so I got the best result I could. Next up is Misano, a track I love. It will be important to work on the setup of the bike from Friday to improve on our performance in Donington and allow me to return to the podium.

Sandro Carusi
Pata Yamaha Official STK1000 Team Manager
I am very happy for this result, because it was a tough weekend, especially when Florian crashed in FP3. It was a really amazing job from the whole team to repair the bike and get it ready for qualifying. In the race, Florian was fantastic, he rode superbly, while Roberto had some issues at the start, but as it went on he got his feeling with the bike back and did brilliantly to come back and claim fourth. We are very, very happy now because both riders are level in third place in the championship standings with the same points and the gap to the leaders is very small. We have a very good chance now to fight for the title and we are really confident for the next race at Misano.

Source: Yamaha Motor Europe N.V.

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