At Imola Rea doubles down, winning WorldSBK Race 2 as well, while Cluzel dominates in WorldSSP600; Ana Carrasco wins in WorldSSP300 and wild card Matteo Ferrari in STK1000

In Race 2 the riders substantially confirm the Pirelli solutions already seen in action in Race 1, in WorldSSP600 the new soft compound rear development option is popular

Imola (Italy), 13 May 2018 – The MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship races just ended, hosted this weekend by the Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit in Imola.
In the premier class, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) took no prisoners and, after winning yesterday in Race 1, he continues by winning Race 2 ahead of Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and teammate Tom Sykes.
With this win, his fifth of the season, the Northern Irishman who represents the Akashi-based manufacturer, leads in the Championship standings with an advantage of 47 points over Davies and 72 ahead of Sykes.
 
The races in the other categories were more competitive with Jules Cluzel (NRT) riding his Yamaha to the win in WorldSSP600 ahead of Italians Federico Caricasulo and Raffaele de Rosa. On the other hand, Spaniard Ana Carrasco was back to her winning ways in the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship and in the Superstock 1000 European Championship, Italian wild card Matteo Ferrari (Barni Racing Team) took the top step of the podium.
 
Race 2 brought confirmation for Pirelli, with the riders more or less using the same solutions that had already seen action in Race 1, whereas in WorldSSP, several riders favoured the new rear soft compound X0497 development solution.
 
In Race 2, Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) started well from pole position, but shortly thereafter was overtaken by Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team) who, after starting from the fourth spot on the grid, moved into the race lead. Behind them were Xavi Forés (Barni Racing Team) and Michael Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team). In the meantime, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who, after finishing first yesterday, started from the ninth spot on the grid today, managed to fight his way through the pack and into fourth place during the third lap. Before the end of the same lap, Davies successfully overtook Rinaldi to regain the race lead and Rea followed right behind, moving into second.
On the sixth lap, Lorenzo Savadori crashed out of the race on Rivazza corner. During the tenth lap and on the same corner, Michael Van Der Mark went long, colliding with Marco Melandri, bringing both riders' race to an early end.
From mid-race on, it was a battle between Davies and Rea for first place. Rea made a decisive attack during the twelfth lap, but Davies managed to stay ahead. However, the Northern Irishman held on, keeping the Ducati riding Welshman under constant pressure until finally besting him during the thirteenth lap at Variante Alta. At the end of the lap, Rea had already built up a gap of six tenths ahead of Davies. On the seventeenth lap, Davies made an attempt to retake the lead, but Rea successfully fought him off, even managing to increase the gap to 2.5 seconds, finishing first with a four-second advantage over Davies' Ducati and almost ten ahead of the Kawasaki ridden by teammate Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who, in the meantime, had succeeded in overtaking Xavi Forés for the bottom step of the podium. Xavi Forés confirmed his position as the best of the private team riders with this fourth place finish.
 
WorldSBK Race 2 standings:
 
1) J. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
2) C. Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
3) T. Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
4) X. Forés (Barni Racing Team)
5) J. Torres (MV Agusta Reparto Corse)
6) A. Lowes (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
7) M. Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing - Junior Team)
8) T. Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
9) E. Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia)
10) L. Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura)
11) L. Baz (GULF ALTHEA BMW Racing Team)
12) R. Ramos (Team GoEleven Kawasaki)
13) Y. Hernandez (Team Pedercini Racing)
14) P. Jacobsen (TripleM Honda World Superbike Team)
15) O. Jezek (Guandalini Racing)
16) L. Haslam (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
RT) M. Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
RT) M. Van Der Mark (Pata Yamaha Official WorldSBK Team)
RT) V. Leonov (SPB Racing Team)
RT) L. Savadori (Milwaukee Aprilia)
RT) J. Gagne (Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team)
 
At 11:30 local time, ahead of WorldSBK Race 2, the FIM Supersport World Championship race was held with Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team) who, after taking pole position on Saturday, was unable to capitalise on the advantage, finishing the race halfway down the rankings due to a mistake.
Five-time 600 class World Champion, Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), who was to celebrate his retirement from racing with this final race, decided not to participate at the last moment.
The Yamaha riding Frenchman started well from the first spot on the grid ahead of his teammate Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team), followed by the other Yamaha rider Jules Cluzel (NRT).
During the sixth lap, Mahias went long on a corner, losing the race lead to Caricasulo. Behind the team NRT Italian riders was Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing).
In addition to Caricasulo, the lead group was made up of Cluzel, Cortese and Raffaele De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag), all within a second and a half of one another.
On the eighth lap, Caricasulo ran long on a turn. The rider managed to re-enter the race in fourth place and Frenchman Jules Cluzel took over in the lead.
During the tenth lap, Raffaele De Rosa moved into second place after overtaking Sandro Cortese.
After the mid-race point, Cluzel continued in the lead ahead of De Rosa, Cortese and Caricasulo. Three laps from the end, Caricasulo managed to best the team Kallio Racing German, moving into a virtual third place.
In the meantime, Randy Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team) clawed his way up from eleventh place on the grid all the way to fifth place.
On the final lap, Caricasulo managed to overtake De Rosa, moving in behind Cluzel, but the Frenchman was faster, finishing first ahead of Italians Caricasulo, second, and De Rosa, third. Sandro Cortese finished fourth.
 
WorldSSP standings:
 
1) J. Cluzel (NRT)
2) Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team)
3) R. De Rosa (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag)
4) S. Cortese (Kallio Racing)
5) R. Krummenacher (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team)
6) A. West (EAB antwest Racing)
7) N. Tuuli (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda)
8) L. Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team)
9) L. Stapleford (Profile Racing)
10) H. Okubo (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
11) R. Hartog (Team Hartog - Against Cancer)
12) T. Gradinger (NRT)
13) L. Cresson (Kallio Racing)
14) A. Irwin (CIA Landlord Insurance Honda)
15) N. Morrentino (Renzi Corse)
16) H. Soomer (Racedays)
17) P. Sebestyen (SSP Hungary Racing)
18) M. Canducci (Team GoEleven Kawasaki)
19) A. Coppola (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP Junior Team)
20) L. Gabellini (G.A.S. Racing Team)
21) W. Tessels (Chromeburner Wayne's Racingteam MtM)
22) N. Calero (Orelac Racing VerdNatura)
23) S. Hill (Profile Racing)
24) K. Smith (GEMAR Team Lorini)
RT) M. Malone (Team GREENSPEED)
RT) E. Lahti (Sterkman Motorsport by HRP)
RT) J. Van Sikkelerus (GEMAR Team Lorini)
RT) M. Roccoli (G.A.S. Racing Team)
RT) A. Badovini (MV Agusta Reparto Corse by Vamag)
RT) K. Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing)
RT) J. Iturrioz (Team GoEleven Kawasaki)
 
In the third race on Sunday, the Supersport 300 World Championship race, Spaniard Ana Carrasco (DS Junior Team), who had already won the race in Portimão last year in her 300 class rookie season, rode her Kawasaki Ninja 400 to the top step of the podium ahead of Italian wild card Kevin Sabatucci (PROGP Racing) and Spaniard Borja Sanchez (ETG Racing).
 
In the Superstock1000 European Championship, the final event of this race weekend, victory went to the Barni Racing Team wild card, Matteo Ferrari, a rider who is currently lying second in the Italian Superbike Championship overall standings. Second place went to Roberto Tamburini (Berclaz Racing Team) and third to Chilean rider Maximilian Scheib (Aprilia Racing Team).
 
 
The Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders for WorldSBK Race 2 and WorldSSP:
 
In Race 2, partly due to the asphalt temperatures which were basically the same as yesterday, most of the riders substantially confirmed the solutions used in Race 1.
At the front, the soft V0952 development solution (option B) remained the favourite among the riders, chosen by 15 out of the 21 riders in the race here, thanks in part to the changes made by Leon Haslam and Leandro Mercado, who preferred it over the SC2 they had used in Race 1.
At the rear the soft W1050 development tyre (option A), introduced by Pirelli in Aragón and also brought to Assen, increased in popularity over the W1002 SC0 development solution (option B). In addition to those riders who had already used it in Race 1, Jordi Torres and Ondrej Jezek also chose it.
 
In the WorldSSP race, the riders made rather varied choices. On the rear, thanks to the fairly high asphalt temperatures, it was impossible to use the soft solutions. Between the X0093 SC1 development tyre (option A) and the standard SC0 (option B), more popular by a short margin was the former. As for the front, 15 out of the 31 riders on the grid opted for the standard SC1 (option A), with 14 choosing the X0012 SC1 development solution (option B) and the remainder going with the standard SC2 (option C).
 
 
Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Race 2:
 
• Winner of the PIRELLI BEST LAP AWARD: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK),in 1'46.898 at the 15^th lap
 
• Most used front solution: development SC1 V0952 (16 out of 21 riders)
 
• Most used rear solution: development SC0 W1050 (16 out of 21 riders)
 
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 279.3 km/h, achieved by Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in the 19^th and last lap
 
• Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class: 6 front and 7 rear
 
Number of tyres available for each Superbike rider: 80, including 41 front and 39 rear
 
• Air temperature: 25° C
 
• Asphalt temperature: 46° C
 
 
Pirelli statistics for WorldSSP race:
 
• Winner of the PIRELLI BEST LAP AWARD: Lucas Mahias (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team), in 1'51.529 in the 4^th lap
 
• Most used front solution: standard SC1 (15 out of 31 riders)
 
• Most used rear solution: development SC0 X0497 (15 out of 31 riders)
 
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Supercorsa tyres: 255.5 km/h, achieved by Loris Cresson (Kallio Racing) in the 7^th lap
 
• Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSSP class: 5 front and 5 rear
 
Number of tyres available for each WorldSSP rider: 51, including 25 front and 26 rear
 
• Air temperature: 24° C
 
• Asphalt temperature: 41° C