After taking two podiums at Imola, the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team is ready to resume action and take up the challenge at Donington (United Kingdom), home of the sixth round of the 2018 WorldSBK Championship. On the historic Leicestershire track, that hosted the first ever WorldSBK race back in 1988, Chaz Davies is keen to collect his first ever success in the top class, while Marco Melandri has two wins to his tally but the last one dates back to 2012. For both, as the half-way point of the season approaches, the goal is to beat their closest rivals in the championship and narrow the gap in the rankings.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi, twice seventh at Imola and progressively adapting to the WorldSBK class, will once again join the action with the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team. After five rounds, Davies (162 points) and Melandri (131 points) are respectively second and fourth in the championship, while Rinaldi is twelfth. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team and the Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team will resume action Friday, May 25th, at 09:45 local time (CET -1) for the first free-practice session.
Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #7)
“Donington is a track I really enjoy and, being from the U.K., the atmosphere there is awesome and the home crowd support is always great. My first time out there was back in 1999 and I had some great results with two-strokes, but not yet with Superbike unfortunately. But, we’ve made improvements every year and it seems that we have been getting closer to our main rivals around there, so the goal is to find the next step and hopefully we’ll have some results to cap off the weekend nicely.”
Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati #33)
“I really love Donington as a track and I had some great races there in the past. It wasn’t the case last year, but we had just entered a difficult stretch back then while now we know much better our strong suits and where we need to improve. It looks like the weather will be nice, which is a good starting point, and our package is getting dialed in better and better, even though our rivals seem to have further improved. The Mugello test yielded some important confirmations, so I can’t wait to ride again.”
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Junior Team #21)
“With three rounds under our belts, the team and I are getting more and more experience. Imola represented another positive weekend, and now we head to Donington, a track that I like, with more data available and the goal is always to get closer to the front. We’ve been improving steadily and we need to stay on this course, working especially on race pace. I’m confident.”
Circuit information
Country: United Kingdom
Name: Donington Park
Length: 4.023 km
Corners: 12 (5 left, 7 right)
Pole position: left
Race distance: 23 laps/92.529 km
RECORDS
Fastest lap: Sykes (Kawasaki), 1:26.641 (167,160 km/h) – 2017
Circuit record: Rea (Kawasaki), 1:27.605 (165,319 km/h) – 2016
Superpole: Sykes (Kawasaki), 1:26.641 (167,160 km/h) – 2017
2017 RESULTS
Race 1: Sykes (Kawasaki), Haslam (Kawasaki), Lowes (Yamaha)
Race 2: Rea (Kawasaki), Sykes (Kawasaki), Davies (Ducati)
Rider information
Chaz Davies
Bike: Ducati Panigale R
Race number: 7
Age: 31 (Born 10/02/1987 in Knighton, Wales)
SBK races: 162
SBK wins: 29
SBK podiums: 74
Marco Melandri
Bike: Ducati Panigale R
Race number: 33
Age: 35 (Born 07/08/1982 in Ravenna, Italy)
SBK races: 138
SBK wins: 22
SBK podiums: 66
Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Bike: Ducati Panigale R
Race number: 21
Age: 22 (Born 12/21/1995 in Rimini, Italy)
SBK races: 6
SBK wins: –
SBK podiums: –
Weekend schedule (CET -1):
Friday (May 25th)
09:45 – 10:45 SBK FP1
12:30 – 13:10 SBK FP2
16:05 – 16:45 SBK FP3
Saturday (May 26th)
09:00 – 09:20 SBK FP4
10:45 – 11:00 SBK Superpole 1
11:10 – 11:25 SBK Superpole 2
13:15 SBK Race 1
Sunday (May 27th)
09:45 – 10:00 SBK Warm-up
13:00 SBK Race 2
