Round nine of the WorldSBK championship continued today at the Nevers Magny Cours circuit in France with Superpole and the first of the weekend’s races.
Yesterday, the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team and rider Bradley Ray completed the first two free practice sessions, finishing nineteenth with a time of 1’38”364. This morning, in hot and sunny conditions, the Brit headed out for the final practice, which was followed by Superpole, the phase that establishes the grid positions for the first race.
During this qualifying session, Ray significantly improved on his best lap, setting a 1’36”961 to place seventeenth. The Englishman would have started the race from row six if he hadn’t received a penalty at the end of Superpole, which forced him to start from row seven, in twentieth position.
Ray made a fast start that allowed him to make up several positions. The Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team rider was up into the points zone when, just a few laps from the end, he was unfortunately forced to retire due to a technical issue with his bike.
Tomorrow Bradley will compete in the morning’s Superpole Race and the second and final Superbike race of this ninth WorldSBK round.
"Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of difficulties this weekend owing to a big crash in FP2 and a technical problem in Race 1. We hope to achieve better results in tomorrow’s two races.”
“It was a difficult race, also because we hadn’t been able to work as we’d hoped on the setup during practice. I unfortunately had to retire a few laps from the end due to a technical problem. We’ll work hard this evening and tomorrow morning to have our R1 ready for both the Superpole Race and Race 2. We’re doing everything we can and so I’m confident ahead of tomorrow – I hope we can put together two good races.”
