Tom Sykes had a ‘fairy tale’ weekend at Donington Park with his first ever double victory in World Superbikes.
The British rider led all the dry sessions, Q1, QP2, the second free practice and he lead all three Superpole stints and broke the previous Superpole lap record and also took the race lap record.
After having completed the first third of the season, standings leader and title Sylvain Guintoli who finished 3rd and 2nd today admitted that Skyes was literally unbeatable today, as the Kawasaki rider moved to just four points adrift of the Aprilia rider who has been a model of consistency, always on the podium except for the Monza round and in race 2 at Assen which was his worst result.
Marco Melandri’s weekend was bittersweet, a podium and a fifth place was not what he was expecting after Monza and to celebrate the announcement that girlfriend Manuela Raffaeta is expecting their first child.
The BMW Goldbet team will be testing at Aragon for three days starting Tuesday.
Tom Sykes – 1st and 1st “I have been in World Superbike for a few years now and I got the first double win on home soil is a fairy tale.
One click on the front suspension between races made the difference and we could see that in the second race time, which was better than the first one.
The Ninja ZX-10R is working well and it has been all weekend so I feel very motivated.
We are racing in a World Championship and these guys are as fast as you like and very competitive, so it is not as easy at it looked.
Kawasaki is a very close unit and we have worked hard and everybody has seen how much better we are in the races.
I got the circuit record yesterday and I got the new lap record in race two so I have the full set.
I really enjoyed the support from the crowd and I hope they enjoyed the show.
No better place to do my first double than at Donington Park.
A good weekend and we are closer in the championship, just four points from the top.
We’re in a strong situation, we have a good base setting and now we are going to some fantastic circuits.
” Marco Melandri – 2nd and 5th“It was a weekend of mixed emotions.
Race one was really nice, but not easy.
I had quite a good start, then I began pushing to gain positions.
It was difficult to overtake Johnny and Sylvain and it took time.
Then, when I had claimed second position, Tom was too far away and I didn’t have enough time to reach him, but I was happy with second place.
In race two, my start was not as good but step by step I got closer to the front group.
But when I was directly behind Laverty, I started to have some difficulties riding.
On the final lap, I tried to overtake him in the chicane, but when entering the corner I could not brake properly so I went wide to avoid a crash.
It was a pity as I had hoped to get more points.
Now we have to continue working.
This week we will go testing and try some new solutions.
”Sylvain Guintoli – 3rd and 2nd “I’m quite pleased with the way Race 2 went, not only because of the result.
I pushed hard and gave it my all for the entire race, but Sykes was just impossible to beat today.
In the first race, on the other hand, I made a few too many mistakes which cost me second place, and considering the lap times I was putting without them I would have been able to close the gap more.
In any case third and second are excellent results for the championship on a track where we are not able to take full advantage of the RSV4′s potential.
Now we are off for Portimao, a track which is very well suited for the characteristics of my Aprilia, where we will be able to do some good teamwork”.
Jonathan Rea – 4th and 11thI was pretty happy with my pace at the start of race one but, as soon as my tyre started to go, off the electronics were cutting too severely and I lost a lot of pace.
I even struggled to compete with Laverty and Guintoli as they came past.
Race two was a complete disaster.
Already, on the sighting lap, I told the guys that we had a sensor problem on the traction control.
They said there wasn’t enough time to fix it so I went out on a bike that I was really unsure of.
In reality it was cutting way, way too much power and I even tried to turn the traction control off, but it wouldn’t turn completely off.
It was the worst 23 laps I’ve ever ridden.
I’m really frustrated after all the work we’ve done – we struggled for dry time at the start of the weekend but made some inroads during warm-up this morning and I felt good in race one.
I feel like we should have been on the podium twice today.
Loris Baz: 5th and 7th “I knew that I had good pace even yesterday.
I just did not have a good Superpole qualifying session.
But in race one today the good Loris was back! I did not have such a fast start but I wanted to go right to the front quickly but I ran straight on at one corner.
I was coming back, coming back, and then overtook without any mistake and finished fifth.
In race two I did not have the same feeling as in race one and that meant that I could not push, maybe more me than the bike, and the temperature was a bit different.
I was not able to follow Chaz Davies and was waiting to get to the end of the race but I did my best.
I am still sixth in the championship and I took some points advantage to Jonathan Rea so that is good.
”Davide Giugliano – 6th and 4th “In race one I had trouble finding a good rhythm.
I also made a mistake but then I was able to catch up to sixth place.
I wasn’t totally satisfied with the race but it helped me understand many things that I then used to my advantage in race two.
The second race went much better.
We did what we expected to do although I must say it is difficult to battle with the factory riders.
But we’re not far off being able to fight regularly with them.
We were the first privateers in the midst of all the factory bikes and this gives us confidence for the future.
I dedicate this result to my team and to our sponsors.
”Eugene Laverty – 7th and 3rdAt the end of Race 1 I was disappointed.
I have always had trouble on this track, but I could have done better than seventh place.
On the other hand Race 2 got off to a better start straight away.
A few changes we made to my RSV4 between the two races immediately increased my feeling with it.
In fact, I was able to defend third place against Melandri’s attacks, and as I said at Monza, it’s always nice to end the weekend with a podium.
The performance in Race 2 is encouraging for the rest of the championship.
It shows that even on shorter, more winding tracks we can keep up with the top riders.
I like Portimao, I was strong there last year so I’m looking forward to the next round”.
Chaz Davies – 8th and 6th “It was not an easy day.
The first race was tough as pretty much from the early laps onwards I nearly had no grip.
After a few laps the tyres started to spin more than I was expecting.
The spinning was upsetting the chassis and making the bike nervous, so it was a fight for 23 laps.
I tried everything I could to make the bike more stable and to find more grip but I could not do anything.
For race two we made quite a few changes and I had better grip for longer so I could stay with the front group for a while.
But then grip started lacking again and I could not do anything more.
Now we go testing in Aragón where we have a few things to try and I am looking forward to that.
”Jules Cluzel – 9th and 9th“I am happy with the second race because we finished in the top-10 and I felt some things that we can use which will help us improve at the next couple of races.
At the end of the race I was able to push a bit harder and this is good for me.
If I push too hard in the first few laps I make mistakes, so I am now trying to ride like I did in Aragon and wait a bit and build up my performance.
When I feel I am ready to start pushing from the first lap I will do that, but at this moment I need to wait a bit.
I was happy that I ended the race with my lap-time quite close to my best lap and I feel that we can now do some good things soon.
”Carlos Checa – 11th and DNS“Seeing how the first race went, and the pain that I had in my shoulder both during and after the race, we decided that it was best not to force things by participating in the second.
To tell the truth I thought things might be worse today, at what is one of the most physical tracks but, having said that, I need more time to recuperate and get my strength back as I’m suffering particularly in the changes of direction and when entering left-hand turns, where it’s important to have both arms at 100%.
Of course it’s not an injury that affects me in my day to day life but at 300km/h it really hurts.
Now we have two weeks, in which I’ll continue with the various treatments in preparation for Portimao where I hope to be stronger.
From the next round I’d like to be able to focus more on the sporting side of things and less on health issues.
”Ayrton Badovini – 12th and DNF “In the first race I lost too much ground in the opening laps and after that there was no way to reach those ahead of me.
I felt we made a good step between race 1 and race 2 – in the second I had similar pace to the group ahead of me but unfortunately I lost the front entering turn 2.
I didn’t hurt myself but it was a pity because I wasn’t doing badly.
Now I want to continue with our work to better understand what works and what works less well, in order to make less mistakes during the weekend and to be faster in the next races.
”Niccolò Canepa – 13th and 8th “Considering that these were my first races I’d say that we are coming out of this weekend with a fairly positive outlook.
We’ve worked well and if we’d had more time on track on Friday then I think we could have done better.
We’re not far off I don’t think, with a bit more time to set the bike up for me and my riding style we could probably have done more.
I’m just sorry for the mistake in race 1 but these things can happen in racing.
I’d like to thank Francis Batta, Ernesto Marinelli and the team for giving me this opportunity and thanks also to Ducati’s development team who’ve worked so hard for me this weekend.
”Leon Camier – DNF and 13th“I had a bad start and was a bit too aggressive in the first race, even though I felt ok on the bike.
I was trying to get past Canepa, but in the slower corners I was struggling a bit to get the bike pulled-up.
I knew this, but I was desperate to get past him because I could see the front group going away, so it was my mistake and I ran off.
Then I was pushing really hard to come back through the field and crashed.
I was frustrated in race two because I felt like I didn’t have the best grip and the BMWs got past me, so I pushed hard, but got caught out at Goddards.
The front went from underneath me, I don’t really know why it happened, but I couldn’t do much about it.
I picked the bike up and tried my hardest to come back, but the main pack was too far away to catch them.
I will now have to put this behind me and try and do my best at Portimao in a couple of week’s time.
”Leon Haslam – DNSLooking at the guys ride around Donington and knowing what I’ve done here in the past makes it kind of frustrating to sit and watch the races in the motorhome.
Jonathan proved in race one that the bike was capable of fighting for the podium and I feel I might have been up there.
There are a lot of ifs and buts, but I think it was the right decision not to ride.
Even though I haven’t been riding today, the leg is still quite sore so I’ll get bit more physio, have a few days off, and see how we get on.
The surgeon who operated on me says the best thing would be a few days on a warm beach so I’m going to look at an early flight out to Portimao and continue the work out there.
