Silverstone (UK), Sunday 4 August 2013: mixed conditions at Silverstone today for the ninth round of the World Superbike championship; with rain conditioning both races, Badovini and Team SBK Ducati Alstare concluded both races in eighth position while Checa took a tenth and thirteenth place finish.
Race 1 – the onset of rain just as the riders took to the grid caused a delayed start. With a new race distance of 17 laps (due to the decision to make two sighting laps), Carlos started in second position on the grid. He lost a few places through the first turns and was lying seventh by the end of lap one. By lap seven it had started to rain in every sector of the track and during this brief phase of the race Checa lost ground, slowing somewhat in order to better understand the track conditions. Over the course of only a couple of laps, conditions had picked up again and lap times dropped once more but the gap that had opened between Checa and the men ahead of him had become too great, meaning that the Spaniard crossed the line in final thirteenth position. Ayrton, thirteenth on the grid, held that position throughout the opening stages. Very much at his ease and able to find his rhythm in the subsequent mixed conditions, the Italian rider began to push hard despite the damp track and slick tyres, gaining several positions in the central phase. Passing riders including Melandri, Davies and Sykes, Badovini was up into eighth place by lap twelve, a position that he was then able to hold until the line.
Race 2 – the second race got underway in dry conditions. After the first lap Carlos was lying ninth, Ayrton thirteenth. Towards mid-race, and with a light rain falling, Badovini made up a couple of positions to move into tenth place just behind his team-mate Checa, still holding ninth. On the penultimate lap, and under what was by now persistent rain, Ayrton passed Carlos but then, as a result of Haslam crashing during the course of the same lap, the race was stopped one lap early. As a result Ayrton took the final eighth position and Carlos followed him across the line in tenth place.
Ayrton Badovini: “Today’s conditions were strange. I’m fairly happy because I wasn’t particularly fast during the weekend’s dry sessions but feel that I’ve taken a step forward today. In race 1 I made a good recovery but if the rain had arrived earlier I think I could have done even better. Race 2 was more complicated, I was a little bit hemmed in at the start and while there were drops of rain throughout the entire race it only came down heavy at the end. I think I made two solid top ten finishes considering the conditions and hope that at Nurburgring we have the opportunity to use the softer tyre that we were using prior to Moscow and are able to take another step forward.”
Carlos Checa: “The two races were quite similar. When it started to rain in race one I found it hard to immediately understand the limits; I slowed too much in that moment and then, once I’d got back into my rhythm, I’d lost too much time and was unable to reach those ahead of me. In the dry I was just about able to stick with the others this wasn’t possible in the wet. In the second race it didn’t rain heavily until the later stages. There were points in which my bike ran quite smoothly and others in which I could feel the lack of power. But in those mixed conditions I made an evaluation and decided that there was no point taking risks for the little that I could have gained. Speaking in general about the whole weekend, the positive thing is that we have found a good setting in the dry, working well as far as the chassis and suspension is concerned and so I’m pleased from that point of view.”
RESULTS: Race 1 – 1. Rea (Honda); 2. Laverty (Aprilia); 3. Camier (Suzuki). Race 2 – 1. Baz (Kawasaki); 2. Cluzel (Suzuki); 3. Laverty (Aprilia)
CLASSIFICATION:
Riders – 1. Guintoli (Aprilia) 262; 2. Sykes (Kawasaki) 249; 3. Laverty (Aprilia) 226; 4. Melandri (BMW) 221; 4; 5. Davies (BMW) 180; 6. Baz (Kawasaki) 180; 7. Rea (Honda) 176; 8. Fabrizio (Aprilia) 138… 12. Badovini (Ducati Alstare) 91… 14. Checa (Ducati Alstare) 68…
Manufacturers – 1. Aprilia 336; 2. Kawasaki 303; 3. BMW 276; 4. Honda 189; 5. Suzuki 165; 6. Ducati 128
