Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website WorldSBK at Assen: Race 1 goes to Rea on Kawasaki ahead of hometown hero Van Der Mark on Yamaha and Chaz Davies on Ducati; unanimous choice by the riders for the Pirelli tyres used
april 21, 2018 - Pirelli

WorldSBK at Assen: Race 1 goes to Rea on Kawasaki ahead of hometown hero Van Der Mark on Yamaha and Chaz Davies on Ducati; unanimous choice by the riders for the Pirelli tyres used

In the first race of the weekend, all the riders choose the soft W1050 development solution for the rear and the V0952 SC1 development tyre for the front; eighth consecutive win on the Dutch track for the reigning World Champion

Assen (Netherlands), 21 April 2018 – Defending World Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) won Race 1 today in the fourth round of the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship which is being held this weekend at TT Circuit Assen. This is the eighth consecutive win for the Northern Irish Kawasaki rider on the Dutch track. Finishing behind him were Michael Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
Rea now leads in the overall standings with a 21 point advantage over Davies and 33 over Marco Melandri.
 
As for the Pirelli tyres used in the race, the riders made a unanimous choice: everyone opted for the soft W1050 development solution on the rear, whereas on the front they all mounted the V0952 SC1 development tyre. The only rider to use a different front tyre was Alex Lowes who, because of a mistake made by the team, went out with the W0494 mounted.
 
At the start of Race 1, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) got off the grid well, moving into first place ahead of pole man Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team) and Xavi Forés (Barni Racing Team).
During the third lap, hometown hero Michael Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team), after starting from the seventh spot on the grid, managed to move up to second place behind Rea and ahead of teammate Lowes.
The lead group was made up of seven riders, all within 2 seconds of one another with the first three within half a second of one another. Behind the leading trio were the Ducati machines piloted by Xavi Forés, Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri, followed by Tom Sykes astride his Kawasaki in seventh place.
During the fifth lap, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team) crashed on turn 7 and was forced to retire.
Before the end of the eighth lap, Michael Van Der Mark managed to overtake Jonathan Rea for the race lead and in the meantime, Davies also got past Lowes and Forés to move into third.
Van Der Mark attempted to set the race pace, but Rea did not let him get away at the front and before the end of the tenth lap, the reigning World Champion managed to take back the lead. On the next lap, Van Der Mark was also forced to yield a position to Ducati rider Chaz Davies, who set off after Rea.
A the mid-race point, the lead group was made up of Rea, Van Der Mark, Davies and Forés, all within half a second of one another.
While lying ninth during the fifteenth lap, Lorenzo Savadori crashed out on turn 5, but was able to rejoin in sixteenth position.
In the meantime, Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) overtook Xavi Forés to move into fourth place behind Van Der Mark.
In the early part of the seventeenth lap, Van Der Mark managed to take back second from Davies, while in the race finale, Tom Sykes also became a threat behind the Ducati riding Welshman in an attempt to snatch the bottom step of the podium, but Davies was able to ward off the Kawasaki rider's attacks.
Jonathan Rea finished first with a 1 second advantage over Dutch Yamaha rider Michael Van Der Mark and almost 1.3 seconds ahead of Davies.
 
WorldSBK Race 1 standings:
 
1) J. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
2) M. Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
3) C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
4) T. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
5) X. Forés (Barni Racing Team)
6) M. Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
7) L. Baz (GULF ALTHEA BMW Racing Team)
8) L. Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura)
9) J. Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)
10) T. Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
11) R. Ramos (Team GoEleven Kawasaki)
12) A. Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
13) D. Giugliano (Milwaukee Aprilia)
14) P. Jacobsen (TripleM Honda World Superbike Team)
15) L. Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia)
16) Y. Hernandez (Team Pedercini Racing)
17) O. Jezek (Guandalini Racing)
RT) M. Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team)
 
 
The Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders for WorldSBK Race 1:
 
In Race 1, all the riders chose the same tyre combination for the front and the rear.
On the front the soft V0952 development solution (option B) was chosen, already used by the riders in 2017 at Aragón, Assen, Imola, Donington, Misano, Laguna Seca, Lausitzring, Portimão, Magny-Cours, Jerez and Losail and this year in the first three rounds. This option uses the same compound as the standard SC1, but has different structural solutions and it is the most used solution on the front by the riders this year. The only rider who used a different front tyre, as already mentioned, was pole man Alex Lowes who erroneously mounted the W0494 SC1 development solution (option C).
On the rear, the choice for all the riders fell to the soft W1050 development tyre (option A), introduced by Pirelli at Aragón and a solution that guarantees absolute top shelf performance with respect to the other solutions, but with a greater level of wear. Compared to the standard SC0, however, it is more suited for cool temperatures.
 
 
Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Race 1:
 
• Winner of the PIRELLI BEST LAP Michael Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team),in 1'35.248 at the 2nd lap
 
• Most used front solution: devolpment SC1 V0952 (18 out of 18 riders)
 
• Most used rear solution: devolpment SC0 W1050 (18 out of 18 riders)
 
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 296.7 km/h, achieved by Patrick Jacobsen (TripleM Honda World Superbike Team) in the 6th lap
 
• Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the Superbike class: 6 front and 7 rear
 
Number of tyres available for each Superbike rider: 76, including 39 front and 37 rear
 
• Air temperature: 18° C
 
• Asphalt temperature: 32° C

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