World Superbikes Round-up & Rider Quotes - Portimao 2012

by Mark Appleton

It was an interesting weekend at Portimao with race 1 being held on a wet track which comprised just 16 laps instead of 22, as an oil leak from a crash forced the Race Direction to bring out the red flag during the seventh lap following the first start and go on to restart the race.

The starting grid followed the classification from the last completed lap before the race was stopped (6th lap).

Tom Sykes rode from pole to a convincing win in tricky drying conditions and in doing so took second place in the championship with only one round to go.

Unfortunately for Tom and his team a race two technical problem prevented them from going for the double win, or another podium finish, leaving Tom both frustrated at being forced to retire but also clear in the knowledge that he has moved to second in the championship rankings.

“We have had some good luck today and also had some bad luck. Obviously on the good luck side in race one” said Sykes, “in the first start, we were really struggling. We made two big changes to the bike after the red flag so on the restart it was a different motorcycle and I was able to do what I wanted with it. I felt more comfortable. So a big thanks to the team and Kawasaki for the snap decision to make those changes. I was feeling confident for race two because we had done a lot of work this weekend and I definitely felt we could have had a very strong race. Honestly I felt I could have been top two in that second race, or maybe even better, but it is what it is. Everybody has seen today what happens in racing.

“Melandri has been relatively on the pace this weekend and through a change of luck of his own he went out of two races. So anything and everything can happen. We had a win in race one, we had problems in race two, and that is what happens sometimes. We are racing at a very high level and sometimes you get dealt this card. I accept it even though it is hard to take having got to within 14.5 points of the lead after race one. I felt I could have reduced that gap again. But it was not to be, so what can you do? We got to France next, pick up where we left off and try to have a strong weekend.”

Loris Baz took two good points scores in seventh place in each race today and in doing so he is ranked 12th overall, with a total of 116 points.

“Race one was not so bad when it was wet because we had a problem at the beginning so we were lucky that the red flag came out” said Baz. “We had made a small change but the consequence was really big in the first start. So we were better in the real race. Race two could have been better but we have worked well and when I realised I could not follow Badovini I had to take it easy. I had a big crash in warm-up this morning, a big highside in a downhill corner, which affected me in the races a bit. But last week if you had told me I would come here and take two seventh places, I would have signed up for that.”

Leon Camier looked like taking his second podium of the season during the final race at the Portimao circuit in Portugal only to see his hopes disappear in the closing stages.

Camier started from ninth on the grid and had made his way up to sixth by lap-three. He continued to close the gap on the leading riders as the race progressed and was in a position to challenge championship leader Max Biaggi when the race entered its final few laps. Camier tried to make a pass on the Italian, as the Aprilia rider ran slightly wide, but Biaggi didn’t see Camier on his inside and cut back across, accidently hitting the FIXI Crescent Suzuki man. Camier stayed on-board and gave chase again, before making another attempt to get past Biaggi, he succeeded briefly, but couldn’t make the pass stick, so continued to line up the Italian for another attack. Unfortunately disaster struck for Camier before he had the opportunity as a transmission issue forced him into the pits and retirement from the race at the start of the very last lap - ruefully wondering what might have been.

“The FIXI Crescent Suzuki worked really well in the morning warm-up, which took place in fully wet conditions, so I was quite happy about riding the bike in the same conditions in race one” said Camier. “When the race was restarted, the track was not completely wet and it began to dry out in some places. The settings we had just didn’t work as well as we hoped and I had to get round as best I could.

“Fortunately, race two was dry. I attacked right from the start and moved up the field. It took a bit of time to get past Guintoli, but once I had overtaken him I set about Biaggi. It was a close battle - close enough for us to make contact - and I really believed I could find a way past, make it stick and take third spot. I had a few problems with the gearbox during the race and then the bike locked up on me with two laps to go and I had to take to the run-off. I tried to keep going, but it happened a couple of times more and nearly spat me off, so I had no choice but to pull out. I’m happy though because the bike has come on a lot in the recent months and I now know we can fight with the best.”

John Hopkins made a strong showing during his first races at the Portuguese circuit, as he continued with his improvement over the demanding layout. In the second race - held in dry and sunny conditions - he made a good start from 19th on the grid and was up into 14th by lap-three. Hopkins continued to push for the remainder of the race and finally brought his FIXI Crescent Suzuki GSX-R home for a safe and creditable 11th position, one place better than the 12th he secured in race one, where he too was in the battle for eighth with Camier and three other riders. Hopkins coped well with the difficult conditions in the first event and was unlucky not to pick up a top-10 result for his hard work.

“Although the results are a bit average and I’d have preferred better ones, I’m quite happy with today” said Hopkins. “The first race was very tricky and if there hadn’t been a red flag it would’ve taken place in full wet conditions and that would’ve been easier to manage. Once the track started drying out, conditions worsened and it was pretty difficult to get round - especially towards the end when the tyres had completely gone.

“I got a good start in race two, but got bumped off the track by another rider and lost quite a few places. After that I kept my head down and went as hard as I could for a finish. This was my first time at Portimao. It’s a pretty hard track to learn, but this weekend we found some good information on the bike and that makes me very happy about the future.”

Ayrton Badovini and Michel Fabrizio obtained 6th and 8th place in Race 2, after 9th and 10th places in the first race.

At the restart Ayrton Badovini moved off well from his 11th grid slot, gaining one place at the end of lap 1 and, after a difficult mid-part of the race, managing to recover to 9th place. Michel Fabrizio made good progress in the early stages up to seventh place until a drop in grip prevented him from staying ahead of those close behind. Michel crossed the finish line in 10th place.

Race 2 took place on a completely dry track and Ayrton Badovini made a good start and managed to quickly get into the top-ten, thanks to a pace that, at times, matched the leader’s. He then climbed to sixth place at the chequered flag. Michel Fabrizio, who also started the race from the fourth row, finished the race in eighth place.

“The two races were extremely tough, but despite that I was able to finish in the top-ten” said Fabrizio. “I moved off well at the restart of race 1 but I struggled in the final laps. Race 2 was difficult as the rear was sliding too much on the dry track.”

“Today I got two quite good results that helped end this round in a slight better way” said Badovini. “After three difficult rounds we rediscovered the right direction a bit. Now I want to do well at Magny-Cours because the team deserves that.”

It was a black Sunday for Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport at Portimão. Factory rider Marco Melandri crashed on the opening lap of race one. As he was lying on the tarmac, he was hit by the bike of Chaz Davies, who fell when trying to avoid him. As Marco’s was severe pain after the heavy impact, the Italian was taken to Portimão Hospital for precautionary checks. He returned to the team in the afternoon shortly after the second race. The examinations showed that he suffered no major injuries but has painful contusions on his back. His team-mate Leon Haslam (GBR) finished a more than difficult first race in 19th. In the second race he had to retire due to an electrical issue.

“All weekend we felt so confident with the slick tyre and the race set-up and today it rained” said Haslam. “Normally I like the rain, but today it was difficult. For race one I thought that it would dry up and we chose the intermediate rear tyre which was a bit of a gamble. But it did not dry up before the race was red flagged. As before the restart the track still had not dried much so we decided to go with the same as all the other guys, but I made a jump start.

“Even before I had the ride through I had an issue with the bike in the wet so after I entered the pit lane twice the race was done for me. In race two we didn’t get the best start but the race pace was not so fast. It was more than two seconds slower than what I did yesterday on the same tyres. In addition we had a technical issue; it was nobody’s fault, but it was me again who had the bad luck. This is very frustrating.”

“Once more it was a very bad day for me” said Melandri. “When Max Biaggi passed me I kept my inside line and I did not really see him. I just heard the sound of somebody touching the front of my bike and I went down and I felt something hit my back. I was very worried about my back, kidney or liver because it hurt very badly. Fortunately the medical exams show that everything is okay. Now it is a bit better because I took a lot of painkillers, but I still don’t feel very well.”

Jonathan Rea maintained his superb record at Portimao in Portugal by taking second place in race two of today’s 13th and penultimate 2012 World Superbike championship round after the day’s opening encounter was disrupted by wet weather and red flags.

 

After heavy early morning rain at the 4.592km circuit, Rea had been sitting comfortably in second place after six laps of the opening race before oil on the track cause a red flag. A drying track in part two of the race, which was won by Tom Sykes, altered the handling of Rea’s CBR1000RR and he could finish no higher than sixth.

Race two was run in dry conditions and Rea was in contention from the opening laps. Eventual race winner, Eugene Laverty, was able to pull a gap before Rea settled into second place, but the 25-year-old Northern Irishman closed the margin from four seconds to just 0.162s at the flag.

“I guess we’ve got to be satisfied with the results today after we didn’t take advantage in Superpole yesterday” said Rea.” I felt really good in both races and in race one I was sitting pretty in second place feeling really comfortable when the red flags came out. Unfortunately, the track was drying for the second part, with zero standing water, but the bike was just too soft for the conditions, so I could only nurse it home. Race two was pretty good and my team gave me a CBR that I was able to compete with at the front. I got held up a little early on and Laverty opened a bit of a gap. When I got clear track in front of me I was able to reel him back in bit by bit but we ran out of laps in the end.”

By contrast, his Honda World Superbike team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama, who was struggling before the red flags came out, changed his setting and found a better pace which took him from 17th on the grid for the re-start to eighth place at the flag.

Aoyama, 30, was not able to repeat his impressive ride in race one with clutch problems forcing the Japanese rider out of contention with just nine of the 22 laps completed.

“I didn’t have a good feeling in the first part of race one and I think we went in the wrong direction after warm-up” said Aoyama. “But after the red flag we had an opportunity to change the set-up and went the other way. It worked much better and I was able to pass some riders and fight for higher positions with the others. I had a not too bad race and I was excited to have another go in race two. Unfortunately, I had some technical problem so I was not able to finish the race.”

At the end of an exciting weekend Max Biaggi, Eugene Laverty and the entire Aprilia Racing Team head home from Portugal having strengthened the leaderships that they boast in all of the World Superbike standings and with the satisfaction of Laverty’s first championship victory astride the RSV4.

The Aprilia domination had already begun in Race 1. Declared a “Wet Race” due to the heavy showers that fell on the Portimao track all morning, letting up only just after the start, the first race saw Max Biaggi confidently taking the lead after just a few laps. But in the sixth lap, with the ranking leader firmly in command, the race was red flagged due to oil on the track after a crash. The changed track conditions at the restart created some difficulties both for Max, who gritted his teeth and crossed the finish line in fourth place, and for Laverty, relegated to 13th place, with the victory going to none other than Tom Sykes, who at that point was Max’s nearest rival in the race for the title after a crash which put Marco Melandri out of commission.

Complete redemption came for Aprilia in Race 2 with two RSV4s on the podium. The victory went to Laverty who, getting out front early at the start, led all 22 laps of the race. Biaggi battled hard for the podium with Leon Camier and the 16 points he earned with third place give him a 30.5 point advantage over the nearest contender (Tom Sykes) and 38.5 over Melandri.

“Two really hard races, strange from certain points of view” said Biaggi. “In Race 1 the conditions were completely different from the practice sessions and even in Race 2 on a dry track the grip wasn’t the best. Considering these difficulties and a lot of contact with the other riders, I’m happy with a fourth and third place which reconfirm my lead in the standings. Now we’ll begin preparations for the last round in Magny Cours, as always putting forth our best effort”.

“My first win with and for Aprilia came on my favourite track with a lot of my fans trackside, who I’d like to thank” said Laverty. “Grip in Race 2 wasn’t perfect. I tried to push hard right away to gain an advantage and then I was able to maintain it to the end. This year we had some difficult moments, like we had in Race 1 today, but we’re finally showing our potential with some good progress at the end of the season”.

It was another complicated race day for the Althea Racing team; in race 1 Carlos Checa rode a great race to take his first podium since Brno while Davide Giugliano was robbed of his chance to do well after a collision early on in the race forced him to retire. In the second of the day’s races Giugliano was once again unlucky, suffering from presumed tyre problems while Checa was able to bounce back after a technical issue in the early stages to cross the line fifth.

“Second position is very positive, considering the rain, and the fact that the race was stopped” said Checa. It was difficult because Tom defended himself well and it was very risky to overtake. I had to be careful to control tyre wear as it was drying out later in the race of course. At the end I tried to improve my pace, and maybe I had better pace than Tom in the final stages but I could see no clear place to overtake. Anyway we are very happy, I thank my team that has done a great job all weekend; this is a great result. In the second race I was there with the leading group but then I had a problem and I couldn’t push, I didn’t know what it was but I deactivated and then reactivated the traction control and this seemed to solve it. I was able to catch up a lot of positions but it wasn’t easy, the bike wasn’t as easy to ride as it had been in the practice sessions. Considering all that happened I think fifth is a good result. Now we will concentrate on finishing the season in the best possible way at MagnyCours.”

“We didn’t need that today” said Giugliano. “In the first race contact between Melandri and I left me on the ground. I have hurt my left ankle but luckily I was able to take part in the second race. Then in that race I could feel that there was a problem almost as soon as we began, the front of the bike was not right. After I lost a lot of ground over a couple of laps I came back to the garage. We changed the tyre and I went back out to test it and it was fine, so it looks like it was an issue with the front tyre. That was a pity because I really felt that I was capable of two strong results today – next time hopefully.”

“This fifth place is like a victory,” so says CEO of Effenbert Liberty Racing, Mario Bertuccio, about the excellent results achieved by Brett McCormick in race 1.

McCormick and Lanzi, started from 13th and 21th position respectively and made a good start, recovering positions on opponents. McCormick attacked the lead group and settled in fifth position, and the Canadian would have certainly improved but in the seventh lap, the race director brought out the red flag in order to allow the marshals the chance to clean the track from the oil with which Brignola, who had crashed, had fouled a corner.

The second start saw McCormick start in the second row from the sixth position on the grid ahead of Guintoli, and followed by Sykes and Camier.

The Canadian after duel with Spaniard Carlos Checa, has set its sights on the former world champion and the championship leader Max Biaggi. The challenge was completed only under the checkered flag with Biaggi and Brett separated by a blink of an eye, the Canadian author of a spectacular performance especially remembering that he is back on track after a long convalescence from the bad injury at Assen only at the Germany GP and still in physical recovery.

“Race one was fantastic, to be in the top five was really exciting, I have no words to describe the happiness of the moment” said McCormick. “The bike was working very well and I had a good feeling, I was very fast. Even in race two, the bike was very good and I felt comfortable, the ninth-place is still a good result. This weekend has been a success, and I am happy to share it with my staff and the team”.

“In the warm up with the rain we had some good lap-times, and I hope to do well in race one, but in the second restart the track conditions changed, and I didn’t find a good feeling with the bike” said Lanzi. “In race two the things went better, the pace was not fast but I was constant. Now we will go to France, where the track is relatively simple, having the advantage of a good base of four heats rode. We continue to improve, and I am very comfortable with the team and thank all for the support and the opportunity given to me.”

Race one and two results are available here.