The first race of the fifth Superbike World Championship round played out today at the Misano World Circuit in Italy.
In yesterday’s free practice, Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK rider Bradley Ray worked with his technical staff to setup the bike, rounding out the day in eighteenth place with a fastest time of 1’35”523.
This morning, after the third and final practice, the English rider was back on track for Superpole, in which he was able to significantly improve on his best lap of yesterday, closing fifteenth with a time of 1’34”371. The first race of this Emilia Romagna round played out in the early afternoon, in hot and sunny conditions. Unfortunately Bradley’s bike switched off on the starting grid, which caused a delay to the start of the race. Once back in the garage, the squad’s R1 immediately started again, but as per the regulation the English rider was forced to start from last position on the grid. Having made a good start, Ray made up positions to cross the line in eventual eighteenth place, just a few seconds from the points zone.
Tomorrow the Superpole Race and Race 2 will bring this fifth WorldSBK round to a close.
"Bradley was very fast in FP3 and so we were feeling confident ahead of the race. It was a pity he then had to start from the back, as this seriously conditioned what could have been a good race”.ù
“Unfortunately, due to a small problem on the grid, I had to start the race right from the very back of the field. This made everything more difficult. I was able to maintain very good pace but couldn’t do more than eighteenth. Starting from row five tomorrow, I’m sure I can run a good sprint race and am confident we can finish the weekend in a positive way”.
