The first round of WorldSSP300 concluded today at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.
Yesterday Elia Bartolini and Emiliano Ercolani, the two riders of the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSSP300 Team, were involved in Race1 and while the former had finished in eleventh position, the latter had unfortunately been the victim of a fall, due to a collision with another rider.
This afternoon the two young Italian riders returned to the Catalan track to compete in Race 2. Just like yesterday, based on the results obtained in Friday's Superpole, Ercolani started from the eighth row and Bartolini from the tenth. Ercolani's start was not particularly fast, but Emiliano had subsequently managed to move up the rankings until the seventh lap, when unfortunately another driver hit him and caused him to crash.
Bartolini got off to a good start, but starting from the fifth lap he unfortunately suffered from a brake problem which slowed down his pace and forced him to settle for twenty-first final position.
The next WorldSSP300 event is scheduled for the weekend of 19, 20 and 21 April at the TT Circuit of Assen in the Netherlands.
“Not having been able to carry out the pre-season tests forced us to use these first two races to collect important data that will allow us to improve the set up of our bikes. Although the results of this weekend were not very positive, I am still confident for the next races".
“My start wasn't as brilliant as yesterday's, but I was catching up very quickly and I was starting to like the bike. I could ride as I wanted but unfortunately another rider hit me and forced me to retire. We will do better next time”.
“Unfortunately today we had a bit of difficulty with the front brake starting from the fifth lap onwards. Due to this problem I lost contact with the group ahead of me. Added to this was a set-up that is not yet competitive and as a result I wasn't able to do a good race. We will prepare as best we can for the next Assen races."
