Team Pata Honda Riders Rea & Haslam Score Double Top-10s at Jerez Round 10 of eni Superbike World Championship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jerez - Spain    07.09.2014                 Pata Honda delivers strong Superbike results in Spain Pata Honda rider Jonathan Rea took his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP to fourth and fifth place finishes in today’s two 10th-round World Superbike championship races at Jerez in Spain, retaining his third place in the series with just two rounds to go.   The two races were won by Italian Marco Melandri, with French rider Sylvain Guintoli taking two second places and series leader Tom Sykes scoring a third in race two but seeing his championship lead reduced.   Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam finished seventh and eighth in the two 20-lap outings which were run in cooler, more overcast conditions than the earlier practice and qualifying sessions at the 4.423km Jerez circuit.   Following the cancellation of the Moscow round, the World Superbike championship will reconvene in one month’s time for round 11 at the French circuit of Magny-Cours. Jonathan Rea  - P4 and P5 I’m really happy with today because it was hard to have high expectations last night, knowing we had to make a big change. But when we reverted to the previous spec engine and made some changes to the front of the bike I was able to ride the way I like without having to change my style too much. Starting from tenth on the grid really didn’t help me to use the tyre to its full potential and gain lap times at the beginning; but in the end my pace was really, really strong in both races. We can take a lot of positives but, to be honest, we were chasing our tails a little earlier in the weekend. Leon Haslam  - P7 and P8 In race one I had a terrible start and struggled a bit. When we got to half race distance I think I went the wrong way with the buttons and made hard work for myself in the second half of the race. We made better steps in race two but I just couldn’t get past Loris [Baz]. I made a few mistakes but always caught him back within a lap. It was good to have a battle but it would have been nice to get by him and maybe get up to Eugene [Laverty]. But I was happy enough – we made good steps between the two races electronically. We knew this round would be tough but we’ve come away with two top eights and, even though I would prefer to fight with the next group, I enjoyed a battle so, all-in-all not too bad. Pieter Breddels  - technical co-ordinator Jonathan had quite a positive warm-up and the changes we made worked out well. He had a good start from tenth and then really got into the races. Fourth was a good result in race one and he was just a little short from another fourth in race two. With fourth and fifth, however, he is still third in the championship, so that’s good. Leon had a lonely seventh in race one but we matched the electronics better with tyre life for race two and he was able to battle until the end. The second race was actually better, despite finishing eighth, and I think he’ll be fighting in the top five by the end of the season. Weather Sunny Intervals Air 23°C Track 26°C Humidity 77%   Race 1 Results - Jerez, Spain - 4.423km, 20 laps   1   Marco Melandri 34m20.164s ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team 2   Sylvain Guintoli +1.397s FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team 3   Chaz Davies +4.283s GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team 4   Jonathan Rea +5.705s GBR HONDA Pata Honda 5   Tom Sykes +6.979s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 6   Eugene Laverty +7.342s IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki 7   Leon Haslam +14.868s GBR HONDA Pata Honda 8   Toni Elias +23.853s ESP APRILIA Red Devils Roma 9   David Salom +25.886s ESP KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 10   Sylvain Barrier +26.536s FRA BMW BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike Team Weather Sunny Intervals Air 28°C Track 40°C Humidity 60%   Race 2 Results - Jerez, Spain - 4.423km, 20 laps   1   Marco Melandri 34m25.940s ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team 2   Sylvain Guintoli +2.845s FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team 3   Tom Sykes +6.097s GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 4   Chaz Davies +7.749s GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team 5   Jonathan Rea +7.935s GBR HONDA Pata Honda 6   Eugene Laverty +10.510s IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki 7   Loris Baz +16.078s FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 8   Leon Haslam +16.098s GBR HONDA Pata Honda 9   Alex Lowes +16.554s GBR SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki 10   Toni Elias +25.840s ESP APRILIA Red Devils Roma   Championship Standings   1   Tom Sykes 352 pts GBR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 2   Sylvain Guintoli 321 pts FRA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team 3   Jonathan Rea 285 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda 4   Marco Melandri 267 pts ITA APRILIA Aprilia Racing Team 5   Loris Baz 262 pts FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Racing Team 6   Chaz Davies 188 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team 7   Eugene Laverty 154 pts IRL SUZUKI Voltcom Crescent Suzuki 8   Davide Guigliano 153 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Superbike Team 9   Toni Elias 151 pts ESP APRILIA Red Devils Roma 10   Leon Haslam 150 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda   Copyright-free images © 2014 Pata Honda