The final races of the first round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship 2017 took place today at the Phillip Island circuit, in Australia. Team MV Agusta Reparto Corse has concluded this first round with Leon Camier closing 8th in WorldSBK Race2 and Patrick Jacobsen securing the 6th position in WorldSSP, struggling with a very unlucky race.
WorldSBK Race 2
In this morning’s Warm Up Leon Camier set the 3rd time in WorldSBK timesheet, less than 0.4s from the World Champion Jonathan Rea, in perfect tune on his MV Agusta F4 RC. In Race 2 – according to the new regulation – the 30-years old British rider started from the 2nd position by virtue of the 5th place in Race 1, but lost several positions in the early laps and put on a tight battle for the top 10. At the end of the day, Camier crossed the finish line in 8th place and secured the 6th place in Championship Standings.
WorldSSP Race
The first stage of the WorldSSP race sees Jacobsen struggling with an electronic problem on the second lap that forced him to give up the lead position. Because of a crash, the race has been interrupted by red flag on lap 2 and PJ could start again from pole position. When the lights went out for the second time, the American lost a few positions and the battle with the riders behind pushed him into the gravel at turn 10, falling in 16th position. Thus begins an incredible comeback that brings PJ to set the best lap of the race (1’33.782) before closing in 6th final position and securing 10 points in Overall Standing.
Team MV Agusta Reparto Corse will be back on March 10-12, in Buriram (Thailand), at the Chang International Circuit, for the second round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship.
Leon Camier #2 WorldSBK Rider – To be honest we were expecting a more difficult race than yesterday, with everyone pushing hard from the beginning. Maybe we made a little mistake with the chassis but now we know which direction we need to go with the setting. I am confident we can make some good progress in Thailand over the next two weeks and then we can go to Europe, where tracks suits us a little bit more.
Patrick Jacobsen #99 WorldSSP Rider – Honestly, today was a lucky and unlucky day at the same time. It was very difficult because I was in P1 all the weekend and I wanted to win the race so badly. In the end, the important thing is we get some good points. I want to thanks all my team because they did a great job over the weekend, I really want to repay them with a victory or a podium in Thailand.
For the life of me I can’t understand why MV doesn’t focus their efforts solely on the (competitive) triples. Add Camier to their WSSP roster and be done with it. Racing a four that is way out-of-date is an exercise in futility.