The Superpole and first race of the sixth Superbike World Championship round played out today at the Donington Park circuit in the UK.
Keen to do well at what is his home round, Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team rider Bradley Ray made a strong start yesterday, finishing a strong sixth in the first practice sessions, which were complicated by rain (1’28”057). This morning, following the third and final practice, the young British rider was out for Superbike, a session that established the grid positions for the afternoon’s race. Bradley improved on his best time of yesterday and closed sixteenth with a 1’27”500. As a result, he lined up on the sixth row of the grid for the race, which ran over a distance of 23 laps and on a dry track. Unfortunately, Ray’s race lasted no time at all, as he was hit by another rider through turn one. A very disappointing outcome for both the Englishman and the entire Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team, but they can take comfort in the fact that they have shown real potential until now and can make up for today in tomorrow’s Superpole Race and Race 2.
"It was a pity about today’s race. I was feeling confident and without the incident at turn one Bradley could have surely scored a good result. We’ll do our best to make up this in tomorrow’s races.”
“A race to forget. I was knocked out at turn one on lap one. A pity because we know we have good pace and so we could have scored a good result. We weren’t very lucky in Superpole either, in that my fastest lap was cancelled due to a yellow flag and I had to settle for sixteenth place. Anyway, we turn the page and are already focusing on tomorrow’s races, in which we’ll do our best to score the best possible results.”
