Sunday, October 5, 2014

Team Pata Honda's Rea & Haslam Score Podiums at eni Superbike World Championship at Magny-Cours































Haslam back to the podium with Pata Honda
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Magny-Cours - France    05.10.2014
        
 
Haslam back to the podium with Pata Honda
 
Leon Haslam took his first podium for the Pata Honda team - his 29th in total - in the second of today’s two wet eleventh round World Superbike championship races at Magny-Cours in France.
 
The 31-year-old British rider, who finished sixth in the first 19-lap race at the 4.411km French circuit, made some positive changes to his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade for race two, in which he engaged in a prolonged battle with reigning world champion Tom Sykes.
 
Having caught Sykes with seven laps to go, Haslam tried everything to get by, eventually riding around the outside of his rival at turn seven with two laps remaining to take a fantastic podium for him and his team.
 
It was the team’s second podium of the day after Jonathan Rea finished third in race one. Having taken an early lead, Rea found it difficult to apply his CBR’s power to the slippery Magny-Cours circuit and the 27-year-old dropped behind eventual race winner Sylvain Guintoli and second-placed Marco Melandri.
 
Rea stormed into the lead again in the early laps of race two and had settled into a comfortable rhythm before becoming one of no fewer than 13 riders caught out by the treacherous Magny-Cours surface and crashing out unhurt at turn seven.

The World Superbike championship now breaks for four weeks before the final round of the series at the Losail circuit in Qatar on 2 November.
Leon Haslam
Leon Haslam - 6th and 3rd
It’s been a tough two seasons, with a leg break last year and a few other problems I’ve been having, so a big thanks to the team, to Pata and to Honda who’ve stood by me. I’ve managed to repay them with a podium so I’m over the moon. We had our share of issues over the weekend, first in Superpole and in the second part of race one when I lost all straight line grip.  But the boys made some changes for race two and it was definitely a step forward, although I still suffered a bit in the same area. It was also quite difficult starting from the fourth row of the grid because I couldn’t really see anything for the first few laps. By the time I got past a few guys the leaders had already gone. But I was really happy to beat Tom in the end – it was one thing getting to him but qui te another getting by. I passed him the first time on the brakes but started wheel-spinning and lost all my drive. I felt that I had a lot better pace than him but he was being really defensive. I lost both wheels trying to go outside him at turn three and then tried again at the hairpin and ran wide. I was running out of laps though so to get by him and then open a gap made me quite happy. We can go to Doha in a month’s time a little happier now.
Jonathan Rea
Jonathan Rea - 3rd and DNF
It’s been a day of two halves really. Race one went OK although I really struggled with the power character in the wet today. It seems like Magny-Cours has just got really slippery in recent years and today’s conditions really highlighted that problem. It was satisfying to get on the podium but I wanted to give a little bit more to try and win. So for race two my team gave me some good changes but we didn’t quite solve the problem. I was still struggling in some areas but I was able to get to the front and this time just stay in a really good rhythm. Unfortunately, from the data we can see that, in turn five and six, I went through on a closed throttle as opposed to partially opened, and that was enough to have the engine braking kick in and bring the rear round. It came round so fast, I had no chance t o save it and it’s frustrating to get my first DNF of the year. One of my main targets was to finish all races this season but, speaking to the team’s technical co-ordinator and my crew chief, the target was to get to the front and go for the win this afternoon. I crashed at the front trying to win the race so I can’t be too hard on myself.
Pieter Breddels
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
We were relatively fast with both guys in warm-up this morning but the pace in race one was a lot faster which threw up a couple of settings issues. Jonathan got a satisfying podium in race one, while Leon had to fight back from a slow start which left him quite a gap so he ended up sixth. We changed the settings for both guys in race two and we improved. This was clear when Jonathan took off and held on to the lead for the first half of the race. Unfortunately he pushed a little too hard and crashed out but this can happen when you give it all to go for the win. Leon had a much better start in race two and that put him in a position to fight for the places that matter. He was racing with Sykes for a long time, fighting for third and in a great manoeuvre he took that final podium place. We are all so happy for him and hi s team that he got finally there. It’s been a tough couple of seasons and I’m really pleased for them all.
Weather
Wet
Air
14°C
Track
13°C
Humidity
75%
  Race 1 Results - 4.411km - 19 laps
 
1  Sylvain Guintoli36m45.206sFRAAPRILIAAprilia Racing Team
2  Marco Melandri+2.257sITAAPRILIAAprilia Racing Team
3  Jonathan Rea+5.954sGBRHONDAPata Honda
4  Tom Sykes+15.670sGBRKAWASAKIKawasaki Racing Team
5  Loris Baz+16.149sFRAKAWASAKIKawasaki Racing Team
6  Leon Haslam+29.411sGBRHONDAPata Honda
7  Davide Guigliano+57.319sITADUCATIDucati Superbike Team
8  Lorenzo Lanzi+59.306sITADUCATI3C Racing Team
9  Max Neukirchner+1m12.274sGERDUCATI3C Racing Team
10  Sylvain Barrier+1m22.931sFRABMWBMW Motorrad Italia Superbike Team
Weather
Wet
Air
14°C
Track
16°C
Humidity
76%
  Race 2 Results - 4.411km - 19 laps
 
1  Marco Melandri36m25.402sITAAPRILIAAprilia Racing Team
2  Sylvain Guintoli+2.669sFRAAPRILIAAprilia Racing Team
3  Leon Haslam+16.450sGBRHONDAPata Honda
4  Tom Sykes+20.759sGBRKAWASAKIKawasaki Racing Team
5  Lorenzo Lanzi+46.689sITADUCATI3C Racing Team
6  Max Neukirchner+58.490sGERDUCATI3C Racing Team
7  Loris Baz+1m03.100sFRAKAWASAKIKawasaki Racing Team
8  Claudio Corti+1m24.699sITAMVMV Agusta RC
9  Chaz Davies+1m27.899sGBRDUCATIDucati Superbike Team
10  Niccolo Canepa+1m51.706sITADUCATIAlthea Racing
  Championship Standings
 
1  Tom Sykes378 ptsGBRKAWASAKIKawasaki Racing Team
2  Sylvain Guintoli366 ptsFRAAPRILIAAprilia Racing Team
3  Marco Melandri312 ptsITAAPRILIAAprilia Racing Team
4  Jonathan Rea301 ptsGBRHONDAPata Honda
5  Loris Baz282 ptsFRAKAWASAKIKawasaki Racing Team
6  Chaz Davies195 ptsGBRDUCATIDucati Superbike Team
7  Leon Haslam176 ptsGBRHONDAPata Honda
8  Davide Guigliano162 ptsITADUCATIDucati Superbike Team
9  Eugene Laverty154 ptsIRLSUZUKIVoltcom Crescent Suzuki
10  Toni Elias151 ptsESPAPRILIARed Devils Roma
  Copyright-free images
Honda racing
 
Honda racing
 
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Honda racing
 
Honda racing
© 2014 Pata Honda
 
        

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