Championship titles awarded in the Supersport and Superstock 1000 categories at Magny-Cours, textbook performance for Pirelli wet tyres in Race 1
Kenan Sofuoglu is crowned FIM Supersport World Champion for the fourth time, Lorenzo Savadori is European Superstock 1000 FIM Cup Champion, double win for World Champion Jonathan Rea in the Superbike races
Jonathan Rea, with eleven race fast laps already achieved this year, wins the “Pirelli Best Lap Winner: Fastest Rider of the Year” award with one race still left in the Championship season
This weekend in France Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu on the team Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Kawasaki was crowned FIM Supersport World Champion for the fourth time and Italian Lorenzo Savadori, astride the Nuova M2 Racing team Aprilia, became the new Superstock 1000 FIM Cup European Champion. In the Superbike races World Champion Jonathan Rea confirmed the superiority that earned him the title, winning both races.
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| Rea action |
The round that decided the championship titles in the eni FIM World Superbike Championship Supersport and Superstock 1000 categories was heavily influenced by weather conditions. These were the last two championships that were still open after Jonathan Rea's success in World Superbike, Toprak Razgatlioglu's in the European FIM Superstock 600 Championship and Javier Orellana's in the European Junior Cup. In fact, during the day on Saturday and throughout the night between Saturday and Sunday, the rain fell heavily on the French Magny-Cours circuit and during the day on Sunday the track took a long time to dry out, which made tyre choice in Superbike Race 1 and in the Supersport race that followed more difficult. In Race 1, given the fact that the track was still very wet even though there was no rain falling, all the riders on the grid chose to put rain tyres on both the front and rear. This choice was a gamble, because without rainfall the wet tyres run the risk of overheating and wearing sooner, but it paid off for the riders and demonstrated the excellent performance of the Pirelli DIABLO™ Rain range which, not only provided excellent performance for the entire race, but also allowed Jonathan Rea to improve to the point of achieving the race fast lap in the sixteenth lap, just as the track was drying out little by little. For the first three quarters of the race it was Tom Sykes who set the pace, followed by team mate Rea and then Guintoli, VD Mark, Baiocco, Davies and Camier. During the seventeenth lap the World Champion capitalised on a moment of hesitation by his team mate and overtook him. In the end it was Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) who crossed the wire first with a 4.7 advantage ahead of his team mate, Tom Sykes and more than 14 seconds ahead of the third place finisher, Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli (PATA Honda World Superbike Team). In the FIM Supersport World Championship the French circuit set the stage for awarding the championship title to Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing). The Turkish rider was crowned World Champion of the category for the fourth time after his 2007, 2010 and 2012 championship wreaths. In the race Sofuoglu, relying on intermediate DIABLO™ Wet tyres both on the front and rear, got off the line well straight away. Lucas Mahias (MG Competition) made the same selection, starting from the third spot on the grid, whereas pole man Patrick Jacobsen (CORE'' Motorsport Thailand) opted for DIABLO™ Supercorsa dry tyres. While Sofuoglu was leading the race, followed by Jacobsen and Kevin Wahr (SMS Racing), during the third lap the red flag came out due to engine problems for Kevin Manfredi's Honda and the race was stopped. The race was reduced to 11 laps with Sofuoglu on the grid ahead of Jacobsen and Wahr at the restart. During the first lap Jacobsen overtook the Kawasaki Turkish rider, while Mahias took back his third place spot he originally had on the starting grid. From the third lap on it was a battle between Sofuoglu and Jacobsen for the lead. In the end the American crossed the wire first but the second place finish was enough for Sofuoglu to be crowned World Champion.
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| Sofuoglu Podium |
With the track much drier it was slicks for everyone in Superbike Race 2. The World Champion repeated his race performance, taking the top step of the podium to make it his fourteenth win of the year out of a total of twenty-five races where the Northern Irish rider was on the podium for all except Jerez. Finishing the race behind him were Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team) and Rea's team mate, Tom Sykes. In the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup, Lorenzo Savadori (Nuova M2 Racing) and Aprilia were crowned World Champion thanks to his eighth place finish. For the record, the race was won by Jeremy Guarnoni (Team Trasimeno), ahead of Kevin Calia (Nuova M2 Racing) and Raffaele De Rosa (Althea Racing). This was the final Superstock 1000 race of the season. Bringing up the standings behind the European Champion were Roberto Tamburini (Team MotoxRacing) in second and Raffaele De Rosa (Althea Racing) in third. On Saturday the last race of the FIM Superstock 600 European Championship season was held. In this category, at the Misano round in June Turkish rider Toprak Razgatlioglu, on his team Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Kawasaki ZX-6R, has already been crowned European Champion in his first season in the championship. At Magny-Cours it was Spaniard Augusto Fernandez who triumphed on his PATA-Honda Junior Team Honda CBR600, crossing the wire ahead of Axel Bassani (Berclaz Racing Team) and the newly crowned 2015 European Champion. The final standings of the championship were rounded out by two Italian riders with Michael Ruben Rinaldi (San Carlo Team Italia) in second place and Federico Caricasulo (Pata-Honda Junior Team) in third. Comment from Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli Moto Racing Director: “The weekend ended on a positive note and we can consider ourselves satisfied, especially with the performance our DIABLO™ Rain tyres provided in Race 1 and in Supersport. In fact, it is well known that rain tyres are designed for optimum performance when it's raining and certainly not on a track that is drying out. Here at Magny-Cours it had rained during the day on Saturday but on Sunday morning the track was still very wet. This is definitely not an ideal situation and it made it very difficult to choose which tyres to use. The riders decided unanimously to put on wet tyres and in the end, not only did no one have any significant problems, but performance was so good that just as the track was drying out Jonathan Rea put in several very fast laps, even putting the race fast lap on the sheets in the sixteenth lap. For us this is definitely a very positive sign and we are truly pleased with this result. I must congratulate the protagonists of the day, Kenan Sofuoglu and Lorenzo Savadori, first and foremost, for earning their titles, and Jonathan Rea in Superbike, who showed that he won the championship title with full honours.” The Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders: Several solutions were used in the Superbike category throughout the weekend. In Race 1 all the riders chose DIABLO™ Rain tyres because the track was very damp despite the rain having stopped a few hours earlier. In Race 2, on the other hand, with decidedly drier asphalt, the choice naturally fell to slicks. The solutions used in this case varied, although on the front the 1699 SC1 development solution proved once again to be the favourite, whereas on the rear rider preference was split more or less equally between the standard SC0 and the SC0 T0611 development solution. In the Supersport category race which was held at 11:30 am the riders had no choice and were forced to opt primarily for rain tyres, although in this case not only were DIABLO™ Rain tyres used, but also the intermediate DIABLO™ Wet tyres and some, considering the increasingly drier track, also opted for dry solutions or for a combined dry rear and intermediate front solution.
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| Savadori podium |
Pirelli Best Lap Awards: The Pirelli Best Lap Awards are given to the riders who put in the fastest lap in the Superbike and Supersport races. They were presented at the Paddock Show during the press conference which follows the podium at the end of Superbike race 1 and race 2 and the Supersport race. The Superbike and Supersport rider who has earned the most “Pirelli Best Lap Awards” will be elected “Best Lap Winner: fastest rider of the year” and will be awarded during the ceremony at the end of the year. Jonathan Rea at Magny-Cours has won the award since he already won 11 Best Laps during the season, Jules Cluzel is leading the Supersport with 5 Best Laps. These are the riders who won the Pirelli Best Lap Awards at Magny-Cours: WSB Race 1 – Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), 1'53.247 (16th lap) WSB Race 2 – Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), 1'38.500 (15th lap) WSS – Patrick Jacobsen (CORE'' Motorsport Thailand), 1'43.569 (10th lap) The overall standings after twelwe rounds are as follows: WSB: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team): 11; Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team): 6; Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team): 5; Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils): 1; Davide Giugliano (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati SBK Team): 1 WSS: Jules Cluzel (MV Agusta Reparto Corse): 5; Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Team): 3; Patrick Jacobsen (CORE'' Motorsport Thailand): 3 The 2015 Pirelli statistics for the Magny-Cours round: • Total number of tyres Pirelli brought: 4508 • Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the Superbike class: 5 front and 7 rear • Number of tyres available for each Superbike rider: 35 front and 37 rear • Number of solutions for the Supersport class (dry, intermediate and wet): 5 front and 4 rear • Number of tyres available for each Supersport rider: 27 front and 23 rear • Temperature in Race 1: air 11° C, asphalt 15° C • Temperature in Race 2: air 14° C, asphalt 19° C • Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 289.5 kms/h, in Race 2 by Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team) at 8th lap • Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Supercorsa tyres in Supersport: 259.6 kms/h, Kyle Smith (PATA Honda World Supersport Team) at 10th lap.