Sir Chris Hoy felt that adaptability gained by driving in a variety of different series helped him on his return to the British GT series for the Multimatic Ford Mustang team at Donington Park.
Hoy, who won six Olympic Track Cycling Gold medals during his career, won the GT4 Pro/Am class with Billy Johnson.
And the Flying Scotsman had plenty to adapt to in an ever-frenetic Am section of the race.
“It was great to be back out there, a bit chaotic at the start as it was a big grid on a tight track so you have to be mindful of where you are but to be fair there wasn’t too much in the way of driver standards, there was a tap here or there but that’s it.”
And Hoy was full of praise for teammate Johnson, another man stepping in to the #19 Mustang for the first time in 2019 this weekend.
“In terms of enjoyment I had a great time, it was a great car and a really good team and I couldn’t have asked for a better teammate, Billy has been fantastic in helping me learn to get the best out of the car because I had never driven before this race weekend so it was all very new.”
Hoy’s presence on the motorsport scene has been a somewhat varied one since his debut in 2013.
And the 43-year-old feels that versatility helped him after driving the Mustang for the first time at the start of the Donington Park race weekend.
“The key thing is that I am getting used to dropping into different cars, different championships at the last minute. I did the World RallyCross championships in Barcelona with little testing, had a great time there, I did Monster Trucks in Sweden last weekend, I raced Caterhams and Porsche SuperCup a week before that.
“I’ve done lots of different types of driving which means you never get really good at one specific thing because to become really good you have to be consistent in doing one thing and get used to the car but when you’re chucked in a lot you have to think more about what you’re doing and hopefully that has made me a better driver.”
Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson took a nervy British GT victory on Sunday afternoon at Donington Park.
The TF Sport Aston Martin led from pillar-to-post but through the two-hour race had to contend with pressure from Rob Bell and Shaun Balfe in the Balfe Motorsport McLaren, despite the efforts of the lapped Nicki Thiim to act as a rear gunner for Adam in the second stint.
Jonny Cocker took an impressive if slightly lonely third position for the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini he shares with Same De Haan, while Michael Igoe and Dennis Lind in the RPI Lamborghini held off Phil Keen and Adam Balon in the second Barwell Huracan.
Ross Gunn and Andrew Howard were sixth in the Beechdean Aston Martin ahead of the JRM Bentley duo of Rick Parfitt Jnr and Seb Morris, with Ben Green and Dominic Paul completing the top eight.
It was another disappointing day for the lapped Mark Farmer and Thiim, with Farmer once more having a difficult opening stint after further contact on the opening lap dropping him to the GT4 pack, with further spins eventually seeing the Aston Martin drop a lap behind.
In GT4, it was another pole victory as Seb Priaulx and Scott Maxwell converted top honours on Saturday into victory on Sunday, although the MultiMatic Mustang duo did it the hard way.
That was thanks in no small part to the Tolman Motorsport #4 of Josh Smith and James Dorlin making the early running as they did in Silverstone two weeks ago.
As with Silverstone, trouble was never far away as contact with a GT3 Lamborghini broke a toelink and ended their race from the lead of GT4.
Maxwell had fallen back behind the HHC Motorsport McLaren of Callum Pointon, with Jan Mathiassen in the 42 Century BMW also proving a nuisance.
Pointon would eventually be dealt with by both men and Maxwell set about Smith in the McLaren before handing over to Priaulx.
Matthiasen would hand over to MArk Kimber and the BMW would emerge ahead of the Mustang, where Kimber would stay for much of the race.
The 17-year-old was putting up a fight despite having never driven the circuit before, but it took one mistake to allow Priaulx through with ten minutes left.
It would unravel for Kimber from there as brake failure ended his race on the penultimate lap to lose second place to Dean MacDonald in the #57 Championship leading McLaren while Lewis Proctor and Jordan Collard took third for the #5 Tolman McLaren.
French motorsport fans had already enjoyed the 24 Hours of Le Mans last week, and now their attention turned to the Formula 1 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard. The 5.8km blue and red maze of a circuit is known for its Mistral Straight, named after the famous winds which caused some trouble over the weekend.
Conditions in qualifying proved to be tough, but Mercedes prevailed and locked out the front row of the grid again, with Lewis Hamilton on pole and Valtteri Bottas behind him. Charles Leclerc was the fastest of the Ferrari drivers in P3, as Sebastian Vettel had a horrible Q3 that saw him qualify only seventh. Verstappen started from fourth place and Gasly from ninth. Who split them then? Well, in a big surprise it was both McLaren drivers of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr., who claimed fifth and sixth place on the grid.
The start of the race saw Hamilton immediately create a gap to his teammate and Leclerc behind. Lando Norris lost fifth place to Sainz, who set about putting pressure on Verstappen. The Dutchman easily recovered though, pulled away from Sainz even as he complained about a ‘lag’ in power on the exit of some corners.
Thanks to the 2019 aerodynamic regulations, most drivers had trouble following the car in front of them, leading to big gaps being created. A few DRS overtakes took place going into the Mistral chicane, but no more than that.
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The biggest battles of the race took place in the midfield, where Haas was really struggling and got overtaken by both Toro Rossos.
Verstappen pitted from fourth on lap twenty-one and emerged in fifth place behind Vettel. Leclerc went into the pits on the next lap for the hard tyres as well, coming back out in fourth place. Bottas switched to the hard tyres onlap twenty-four. and re-joined in third behind Vettel, who was yet to stop, and in front of Leclerc.
Race leader Hamilton responded by pitting the next lap, re-joining safe and sound in first place. Vettel was behind him, locked up and told his team he needed to box, which he duly did. Like those around him, he opted for the hard tyres in an attempt to make it to the end of the race. After all pit stops, the situation in the top five was unchanged.
Meanwhile Hamilton took the time to try out the ‘Time Trial’ mode of the new F1 2019 game, putting up fastest lap times on the board lap after lap. and extending his lead to twelve seconds.
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With less than half of the race to go, trouble struck Norris and Grosjean. Norris was told by the McLaren team to not use DRS and that his car would soon become unstable, whilst Grosjean, in his home race, had to retire the car with just six laps to go.
A very short Virtual Safety Car was brought out near the end of the race, after Alex Albon hit a bollard that was then left stranded in the middle of the track.
With just two laps to go, Vettel came in for another pit stop to go for the extra point for the fastest lap, whilst his Leclerc chased Bottas for second place. Was this what Ferrari meant by Plan F?
On the last lap he got in DRS range of the Mercedes, but it didn’t matter. The top three in qualifying ended up as the race result. Vettel’s bid for the extra point paid off as he pipped Hamilton’s time by 0.02 seconds.
The Driver of the Day award went to no other than Lando Norris, who carried on racing with hydraulic problems to end up in tenth place.
F1 returns to Austria next weekend in the first double-header of the season. Last year saw Max Verstappen take the biggest trophy, whilst drama for Mercedes showed us that their engines are not invincible. Will this year’s race see the same drama, or are Mercedes really unbeatable now?
Lanan Racing’s Josh Mason won the second British F3 race of the weekend to take his second career victory in the series.
After winning the same race behind the Safety Car at Silverstone last year, Mason calmly picked off Pavan Ravishankar and Kris Wright ahead of him to take a memorable victory at Donington Park.
Ravishankar had initially led away from pole position as Wright once again made a false start to compromise himself as the lights went out. The American would go on to receive a 10s penalty.
Manuel Maldonado took third place for Fortec Motorsport while Championship leader Clement Novalak claimed fourth place from eleventh on the grid to claim valuable overtaking points that are on offer in Race Two.
Three podium finishers from yesterday’s first race all found it much tougher going on Sunday morning.
Kiern Jewiss and Kaylen Frederick came to blows at the first corner, with Ferederick retiring and Jewiss fortunate to require only a front wing change, with the incident forcing Ayrton Simmons, second yesterday, to take to the gravel to avoid further traffic with Johnathan Hoggard also compromised.
That incident brought about the Safety Car, and it was after that period that the decision move for the win came about, as Ravishankar locked up and ran well wide at Redgate and Mason slipped through on the inside.
Mason would never relinquish the lead, but it got worse for yesterday’s race-winner, as suspected contact with Simmons at the Old Hairpin forced Hoggard off into the gravel and out of the race with three laps to go.
Benjamin Pedersen took sixth for Douglas Motorsport ahead of Double R’s Hampus Ericsson, Ulysse De Pauw ended the race seventh ahead of Double R’s Neil Verhagen while Sassakorn Chaimongkol and the recovering Jewiss completed the top ten.
Nazim Azman was running third for much of the race, but ran wide on two occasions to drop back to eleventh, with Lucas Petersson ending the race twelfth.
Jean-Eric Vergne cemented his status at the top of the championship yesterday by claiming a dominant third victory on the streets of Switzerland. Starting from pole position, the reigning French champion looked unbothered in the penultimate round of Formula E, managing to hold off an aggressive Mitch Evans to seal the win and extend his lead to 32 points over his nearest rival, Techeetah teammate Andre Lotterer, with Evans and hometown hero Sebastien Buemi taking the last two podium positions.
Qualifying was again crucial as the drivers had limited track time yesterday in shakedown with the circuit nestled in the streets of Bern still being built. Di Grassi was the first man out on track, hoping to consolidate his second placed position in the Driver’s Championship, but it was Techeetah’s Vergne who impressed to scoop the top spot in the first group, ahead of his teammate Lotterer and Robin Frijns by three tenths. However, Vergne’s lead was soon eroded by Mitch Evans, winner of the previous ePrix held in Switzerland whilst Sebastien Buemi and Daniel Abt slotted into P3 and P4 respectively at the halfway mark. Edo Mortara, another local, on the other hand struggled and could only scrape into P14 in his Venturi whilst Pascal Wehrlein continued his excellent qualifying form by snatching P3, the rookie’s fifth appearance in superpole seemed inevitable. The final group could not challenge Evans’ lightning-quick time, bar Maxi Gunther who took P5, an excellent showing for the rookie hoping to impress ahead of the new season. Evans took the spoils in the initial stages, followed by Vergne, Wehrlein, Buemi, Gunther and Bird.
Photo by Alastair Staley / LAT Images
Bird set the initial pace with a decent time of 1.19.536 in the opening superpole stages, but his time was soon eclipsed by Gunther who found an additional one tenth in his Dragon. The track conditions continued to evolve as Buemi was the next driver to snatch the provisional pole away by two tenths of a second in front of a delighted home crowd. Wehrlein looked set to continue his excellent qualifying run, however, despite a brilliant first sector, the Mahindra driver locked up into turn 9 and had to settle for the provisional front row behind Buemi, beaten by just four thousandths of a second. However, it was Jev that continued his excellent form this weekend with a monster lap of a 1.18.813, three tenths clear of the other leaders. It fell to Evans to prevent Techeetah dominance, but the Kiwi just fell short of the mark, having to settle for P2 as Vergne took his first pole position of the season.
Vergne started strongly from pole, but there was chaos within the opening lap as D’Ambrosio shunted Frijns into the wall, putting the Dutchman out of the race and out of championship contention with driveshaft failure. The race was red flagged whilst Frijns’ car was extracted from the circuit and the race clock was reset. As racing got underway again, Vergne came under pressure from Evans and the Jaguar driver continued to press at the reigning champion for the remainder of the race.
Photo by Sam Bagnall / LAT Images
On the other side of the Virgin garage, Bird fought his car through the order, first dispatching of Gunther for P5 before squeezing Wehrlein for P4 before the German rookie ground at a halt just before the attack mode zone presumably with a battery issue. Bird continued his charge, piling pressure on Buemi for P3 before the Swiss driver snatched it back a few laps later. Bird then fell victim to a hungry Lotterer, after a mistake caused him to lock up and the Techeetah driver was able to dive down the inside of the Virgin car. As the time ticked down, the top four were within seconds of one another but Vergne was able to hold off Evans’ attack to claim his third victory of the season and claim the voestalpine European race trophy. Evans had to settle for P2, with Buemi claiming the final podium position much to the delight of the Swiss crowd.
The final two rounds of the Formula E season takes place in New York on July 13th and 14th.
The sunny conditions of Superpole were replaced with the rain of Saturday morning for race one of the seventh round of the Superbike World Championship in Misano.
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) made the holeshot from pole position, whilst Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) made good progress from row two and was second as the field hit the back straight out of turn six for the first time.
Lowes soon took the lead, but one lap later the race was red flagged. This red flag was the second of the day after the start was delayed on the first warm up lap.
The rain soon cleared and the track dried quickly. Lowes started from pole position but it was once again Rea who made the holeshot. Lowes dropped back to third place behind Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK), but was able to move back up to second place.
Whilst Lowes was behind Rea, the pair were able to move away from the field quite considerably. No one could get much within one second of their pace. Additionally, the proximity of the two on track gave a good indication of their contrasting riding styles, and the contrasting characteristics of their bikes, as Rea and the Kawasaki were faster in the middle of the lap, which is quite stop-start, whereas Lowes had a significant advantage in the first part of the lap which is all about corner speed and flow.
Once Lowes got past Rea with a move done at turn seven as the race approached half distance, he was able to stretch the World Champion and pull clear. However, just as the Yamaha rider’s advantage edged out to 1.5 seconds, he crashed at the fastest corner of the year – Curvone – and his chance of a race win was over. After losing Michael van der Mark to injury yesterday, all of the hopes of the Pata Yamaha WorldSBK squad were pinned on Lowes, and now he too was out.
That left Rea in a fairly comfortable position, with Sykes far behind on the BMW, and no faster than the four-times WSBK champion.
Sykes, too, was lapping alone, but behind things were getting interesting for the final podium spot.
Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) held fourth place for much of the race, and this became third when Lowes crashed. The Welshman struggled to match the pace of Sykes, but was able to keep the riders behind him at bay.
Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was able to pass the #7 rider eventually, though. But the reigning BSB champion’s podium hopes were ended when he crashed in turn eight, allowing Davies back into third.
Davies gave up the final rostrum position soon after, though, when he let teammate Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) through at turn five.
This was followed by some significant time loss for Davies, who also dropped behind Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha) and into fifth. Davies’ pace picked up again towards the end of the race, but it was not enough to improve from his fifth position.
At the front, Rea was untouchable after the crash of Lowes, and recorded his third win of the season and cut his deficit in the points standings to Bautista to thirty-two points. It was a remarkable performance from Rea who, although known for his prowess in damp conditions, had not ridden in the morning’s FP3 session, which was the only wet track time of the weekend for the WSBK riders before the race, after a dry Friday and scorching Superpole. To win by such a margin with little experience of the track in those conditions compared to his rivals was both impressive and important, as the Northern Irishman needed to take advantage of his title rival’s lack of pace.
Alvaro Bautista and Chaz Davies. Image courtesy of Ducati
Indeed, Bautista was able to take third place, meaning that of the races he has finished in WorldSBK Bautista has visited the podium after each one of them. Bautista had dropped as low as sixth in the race, but took advantage of others’ falls and misfortune to arrive on the podium and complete a quite strong damage limitation job. The Spaniard will be hoping for dry conditions on Sunday, ones in which he will hope to have the potential to take the fight to Rea.
Between the two title rivals were 7.756 seconds and Tom Sykes, who took his first podium of 2019 and the first for BMW, since their full-time return at the beginning of the year. It was a lonely race for Sykes, who was not strong enough to go with Rea and Lowes at the start, but was faster and more consistent than those behind him. In conditions where the other bikes cannot make use of their power advantage compared to the BMW, the S1000RR’s chassis can negate its motor disadvantage, and Sykes was able to make the most of that for this third place.
Loris Baz – Ten Kate Yamaha Supported WorldSBK. Image courtesy of Yamaha racing
Loris Baz was the top ‘independent’ rider for Ten Kate, who were able to finish fourth in their fourth race with Yamaha, and their fourth of the season. Before Bautista got into third place, Baz was closing on the championship leader, but towards the end the Spaniard’s pace picked up. With the retirement of Lowes and the absence of van der Mark, this fourth place was also an important one for Yamaha in the constructor standings.
Chaz Davies finished fifth in what was a strange race for the Ducati rider, with his pace dropping off strangely in the middle of the race. But, with Haslam crashing out, Davies’ fifth in conjunction with Bautista’s third place means that the ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati team extends its lead at the top of the Teams’ Championship over KRT by two points.
Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) has a six-place grid penalty for the Superpole Race on Sunday morning, so he had to maximise this first race of the weekend. Unfortunately for the Italian, he ran on in turn eight early on, and his recovery only got him as far as sixth place, ahead of teammate Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK). Yuki Takahashi (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) took Honda’s best result of the year in eighth, ahead of Eugene Laverty’s new replacement at Team Goeleven, Lorenzo Zanetti. Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) completed the top ten.
Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team) was in seventh place with five laps to go but ended up eleventh ahead of Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing), wildcard Samuele Cavalieri (Motocorsa Racing), Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) and Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) who was the final finisher in fifteenth and took the final point.
Wildcard Dominic Schmitter (IXS Racing powered by YART) was the first retirement on lap eight, the same lap as Lowes crashed out of the lead. Moments after Lowes went down at turn eleven, wildcard Michele Pirro (BARNI Racing Team) crashed out at the same point. Michael Ruben Rinaldi dropped his BARNI Racing Team Ducati two laps after Lowes, Schmitter and Pirro went down and two laps before Haslam crashed the factory Kawasaki. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) went down on the final lap out of eighth place.
Jonny Adam and Graham Davidson took a hard-earned pole position for the first of two British GT two-hour enduros at Donington Park in 2019.
The TF Sport Aston Martin driver pairing were over two tenths clear of their nearest rivals for overall pole position, with the driver’s times combined to set an aggregate qualifying time.
Dennis Lind and Michael Igoe will start second tomorrow after an excellent effort from Lind took the Lamborghini Huracan pairing from sixth to second, while Rob Bell and Shaun Balfe in the Balfe Motorsport McLaren 720S will start third tomorrow afternoon.
Phil Keen and Adam Balon complete GT3 row two ahead of Barwell Lamborghini teammates Jonny Cocker and Sam De Haan in fifth.
Ross Gunn replaced Marco Sorensen in the Beechdean Aston Martin and took himself and Andrew Howard to sixth ahead of Bradley Ellis and Ollie Wilkinson, Nicki Thiim and Mark Farmer will start eighth ahead of Ben Green and Dominic Paul.
Seb Morris and Rick Parfitt could only manage tenth on a difficult circuit for the JRM Bentley, while Tom Onslow-Cole (Guesting for the absent Adam Christodoulou) and Richard Neary go from 11th ahead of Jack Mitchell and JR Litmann.
The pacey RAM Mercedes of Callum Macleod and Iain Loggie will start from 15th and last after Macleod came to grief at the Fogarty Esses following Loggie’s fourth place in AM qualifying.
Meanwhile for Maxwell and Priaulx it was the second pole position in the GT4 class this year.
James Dorlin and Josh Smith were second, after coming so close to victory at Silverstone two weeks ago before technical issues saw them retire, while GT4 championship leaders Dean MacDonald and Callum Pointon in the Tolman Motorsport McLaren 570 will start from third in class tomorrow.
Mark Kimber and Jacob Mathiassen are fourth ahead of Scott Malvern and Nick Jones, Malvern and Jones leading the GT4 Pro/Am entries.
Next on the GT4 grid is the second Pro/Am entry of Martin Plowman and Kelvin Fletcher in the Beechdean Aston Martin entry, while Jordan Collard and Lewis Proctor in the Tolman McLaren are seventh ahead of Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke and Angus Fender.
Johnathan Hoggard took a trouble-free victory in the opening race of the British F3 weekend to complete a perfect Saturday for Fortec Motorsport.
Hoggard claimed pole position early on Saturday morning, and led away from the start as drivers behind struggled to slot in on a competitive first lap.
Ayrton Simmons made a good start and eventually passed Kaylen Frederick for second on the first lap after three attempts, and both men would stay in their respective positions for the duration of the race.
Simmons would go on to apply light pressure to Hoggard throughout the race, looking slightly quicker but never being in a position to land a blow on the man from Lincolnshire.
A Safety Car for Lucas Petersson’s spin down at the Melbourne hairpin allowed Simmons to close up on Hoggard once more, but the gap stayed at around eight tenths of a second, with Frederick in close attendance but never a threat.
Kiern Jewiss was fourth after starting eighth to make an impressive recovery following a disappointing qualifying earlier in the day.
Championship leader Clement Novalak was fifth after holding off the rejuvenated Belgian Ulysse De Pauw in sixth.
Neil Verhagen recovered to seventh for Double R racing after a below-par ninth in qualifying this morning, Manuel Maldonado was a solid eighth ahead of Hampus Ericsson and Benjamin Pedersen.
Sassakorn Chaimongkol will be disappointed with eleventh having started sixth, Nazim Azman was twelfth with Josh Mason and Kris Wright 13th and 14th.
Pavan Ravishankar fell to 15th having ran as high as tenth, while Lucas Petersson failed to finish.
Fortec Motorsport’s Johnathan Hoggard took pole position for British F3’s Saturday race during an extremely competitive morning qualifying session at Donington Park.
In a session that saw pole position change hands lap-by-lap for the first three-quarters of the session, Hoggard eventually rose to see off the challenges of Clement Novalak, Ulysse De Pauw and Ayrton Simmons to name just three.
Seven tenths of a second cover the top fourteen drivers to tease a mouth-watering opening race of the weekend.
Hoggard’s pole lap was initially four tenths clear of the rest of the field, but by the end of the session Kaylen Frederick, another man to have turns on provisional pole, managed to get within just 0.062s.
Simmons will line up third for Chris Dittman Racing ahead of championship leader Novalak, with De Pauw fifth for one of his strongest qualifying showings of the season.
Sassakorn Chaimongkol will line up sixth after an impressive session for the Thai driver, just three tenths off teammate Hoggard, with Manuel Maldonado seventh.
Kiern Jewiss rescued eighth from a difficult session that saw him spend most of his time towards the rear of the field as a track position became an issue for last year’s British F4 champion, while Neil Verhagen will be frustrated with ninth in the leading Double R Racing car.
Benjamin Pedersen completes the top ten, while Hampus Ericsson lines up 11th as Double R lock-out the sixth row with Pavan Ravishankar 12th.
Nazim Azman and Lucas Petersson in thirteenth and fourteenth are the final two cars within a second of polesitter Hoggard, with Kris Wright and Josh Mason bringing up the rear in fifteenth and sixteenth.
Two weeks on from an action-packed sixth round of the Superbike World Championship, the series moves to Misano this weekend for the eighth round of 2019.
Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) shocked everyone by crashing his Ducati Panigale V4R in a race for the first time in race two back in Jerez, letting Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) off the proverbial hook in a weekend in which it looked certain that Bautista would greatly extend his championship advantage.
Alvaro Bautista at Jerez WSBK 2019. Image courtesy of Ducati
Instead, Rea clawed back two points over the course of the Jerez weekend. The gap between the two title rivals stands at forty-one points in Bautista’s favour. On paper, it still seems unlikely that Rea will be able to overcome his deficit, but Misano could prove a positive round for the reigning World Champion. The Adriatic circuit was the scene of Rea’s first ever WorldSBK win back in 2009. In total, Rea has six WorldSBK wins in Misano, as well as four other podium finishes, which compares to Bautista’s solitary Grand Prix victory back in 2008 in the 250cc race, a third place in the 2009 250 race and a third place in the 2012 MotoGP race. In fact, in that 2012 premier class outing, Rea was also present on the second Repsol Honda. The Northern Irishman was replacing the injured Casey Stoner, and finished eighth. So, strictly speaking, for the first time this season we go to a track where Bautista and Rea have faced each other, albeit in particular circumstances which are unrepresentative of those this weekend and were in no way fair to Rea.
This weekend presents a good opportunity for Yamaha. Their bike has traditionally gone well in Misano – who can forget Michael van der Mark’s tyre letting go on his way to victory for Pata Yamaha WorldSBK back in 2017? Additionally, van der Mark was on the rostrum last season in the second race, ahead of Marco Melandri – then on Ducati, now riding GRT Yamaha WorldSBK’s YZF-R1. Furthermore, Melandri won at Misano in 2017, adding to his double rostrums in 2014, and his third place in the first race in 2011, also on a Yamaha.
Moreover, the Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha team have already been to Misano with the R1, albeit mostly in wet conditions. This should give them a chance of a good result this weekend, and an improvement over their first outing of the year last time out in Jerez where Loris Baz went 12-9 in the two full-length races, but was unable to start the Superpole race of bike problems.
Jerez proved a strong round for Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) who took his second podium of the season – and second in two rounds – with third place in race two. The Turkish rider will need more of the same this weekend to edge closer to securing a factory Kawasaki seat for next year, as Moto2’s Xavi Vierge is rumoured to be a possible teammate for Jonathan Rea in 2020.
Michele Pirro is also in action this weekend, the Ducati stalwart riding the BARNI Panigale V4R this weekend. The Italian has featured inside the top ten in several MotoGP races at Misano in the past for the Italian factory. In 2012, Pirro was tenth in Misano on the Gresini FTR Honda CRT machine, and the year after was tenth once more for Pramac. In 2016, as a wildcard, Pirro finished seventh after qualifying on the second row of the grid, whilst in 2017 he finished fifth in the wet. Pirro’s latest MotoGP appearance was at the Italian GP in Mugello earlier this month where he finished seventh, thirteen seconds off the win. Similarly, his latest WorldSBK appearance at Misano came in 2015, when he was eighth in both races. Additionally, Pirro won both races at the CIV round at Misano earlier this year, so could present a problem for some of the championship regulars.
Meanwhile for Maxwell and Priaulx it was the second pole position in the GT4 class this year.
