Jonathan Rea is FIM Superbike world champion, Kawasaki wins the Manufacturer Championship; Pirelli tyres contribute to improving race time by six seconds compared to last year
On the Jerez track the Northern Irish rider clinched the first world championship of his career in Race 1 with two rounds still left in the Championship and the manufacturer from Akashi, thanks in part to the performance of team mate Tom Sykes, wins its first ever Superbike Manufacturer Championship
Pirelli continues their development work that has been done throughout the year: at Jerez the tyre manufacturer improves race time, Jonathan Rea sets the new lap record and Tom Sykes sets the new track fast lap
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| Giorgio Barbier crowns Jonathan Rea |
On the Andalusian track at Jerez de la Frontera Northern Irish rider Jonathan Rea was crowned FIM Superbike World Champion with 2 rounds still left to race in the season whilst his team, Kawasaki Racing, won the first Manufacturer Title in the history of the Akashi-based manufacturer in the factory derivative championship. Pirelli, for its part, finished the weekend at Jerez with encouraging signs and important information to continue its development operations. Contributing to improving the race time by about six seconds with respect to 2014 was positive, as well as allowing Jonathan Rea and his team mate Tom Sykes to respectively set the new lap record and the new track fast lap. In the meantime the riders will already have various new solutions for the rear available to them for the tests scheduled for tomorrow, but above all there will be new front solutions that could prove to be very important for improving the current range. In Race 1 Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) got off the line well with the team champion Jonathan Rea right behind him, followed by Ducati rider Niccolò Canepa (Althea Racing). In the third lap Canepa crashed and was forced to give up several positions, whereas during the seventh lap Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team), who starting from the sixth spot on the grid had managed to move up into third place, passing Rea for second. Behind them in fourth and fifth place were Michele Pirro (Aruba.it Racing-Ducati SBK Team) and Michael Vd Mark (PATA Honda World Superbike Team). During the eleventh lap Haslam and Vd Mark closed the gap on the Championship leader and the Dutchman managed to overtake him. In the thirteenth lap Haslam also got more aggressive, beginning to press the Northern Irishman for fourth place and even succeeding in overtaking him temporarily before the Kawasaki rider was able to come back. At the end of the race it was Sykes who saw the chequered flag first, followed by Davies and Vd Mark, with Jonathan Rea in fourth place to earn the World Champion title. Between Race 1 and Race 2 the FIM Supersport World Championship race was also held, unfortunately without MV Agusta standard bearer Jules Cluzel on the grid due to an accident on Friday which resulted in a compound fracture of the left tibia and fibula, as well as a dislocated right shoulder. With his most competitive rival for the championship out of commission, Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), starting from pole position, easily dominated the race, further increasing his lead in the overall standings and making a serious claim to the World Champion title. Crossing the wire behind him were American rider Patrick Jacobsen (CORE'' Motorsport Thailand), who is now lying second in the overall standings at 33 points behind the Turkish Kawasaki rider and with a five point advantage over Cluzel, and Lorenzo Zanetti (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) who strengthens the hold on his fourth place in the overall standings. It was an excellent start for Tom Sykes in Race 2 as well. The British rider created a sizeable gap already in the first lap as behind him Chaz Davies and Jordi Torres battled it out for second place. World Champion Jonathan Rea was farther back in fourth place. During the ninth lap Leon Haslam managed to get by Jonathan Rea, moving into fourth place and a lap later Vd Mark also overtook the World Champion, relegating him to sixth place. However, in the eleventh lap there was a race upset: Ducati rider Chaz Davies overtook Tom Sykes for the lead. A lap later Jordi Torres, Leon Haslam and Michael Vd Mark also passed the Race 1 winner, and in the fifteenth lap team mate Jonathan Rea also managed to do it.
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| Jonathan Rea parc fermé |
A crash in the sixteenth lap by Michael Vd Mark and Matteo Baiocco overtaking Michele Pirro for sixth place were another two important episodes before the win went to Chaz Davies, crossing the line with a gap of almost two seconds ahead of Jordi Torres and more than two ahead of Leon Haslam who finished on the bottom step of the podium. Jonathan Rea’s fourth place and Tom Sykes’ fifth place were enough for Kawasaki to mathematically win the Manufacturer Championship. In the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup, Roberto Tamburini (Team MotoxRacing), winning the race, remains the only potential contender in the fight for the title with Lorenzo Savadori (Nuova M2 Racing). In fact, finishing the race in third place, the latter now has a 25 point advantage over the BMW rider, but if Tamburini were to win the race at Magny-Cours and Savadori were to finish without points, Team Motoxracing rider would win the Championship because even with the same points and wins he would have won the last race. The championship title will therefore come down to the last round which will be held in two weeks on the French circuit. For the record, the second step of the podium went to Raffaele de Rosa (Althea Racing). Yesterday the penultimate race of the FIM Superstock 600 World Championship was also held. With the world title already safe in hand, Turkish rider Toprak Razgatlioglu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) preferred to stay off the track due to pain from a clavicle broken during training. This round it was Michael Ruben Rinaldi (San Carlo Team Italia) for the win ahead of Spaniard Augusto Fernandez (Pata-Honda Junior Team) and Davide Stirpe (Scuderia Maran.ga Racing). The comment from Giorgio Barbier, Pirelli Moto Racing Director: “First and foremost I would like to congratulate our new World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki Racing Team. Rea had a truly extraordinary season and he demonstrated superior performance that I don’t think has ever been seen before in the history of the World Superbike Championship. His consistency and tenacity were rewarded and I’m happy for him because he has always been a very fast rider and this year he was able to show everyone his great talent. As always, success is never the merit of an individual. Rea had a great team of mechanics and technicians supporting him who made an important contribution to winning this title and, more generally, Kawasaki did an exceptional job, as is demonstrated by Tom Sykes placing in the Championship as well. As for the performance of our tyres, we are quite satisfied. We brought new solutions to Jerez both for Superbike and Supersport which performed well in some cases, and not so well in other cases, so we need to follow up with more testing. Obviously development does not stop here for us but will also continue in the next two rounds and, above all in the tests tomorrow, where we will be providing other new solutions for the riders, both front and rear, and we’ll be making some final assessments of the work done this year in order to make further improvements in 2016.” The Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders: In Superbike various solutions were used by the riders. On the front the most popular tyre in both races was the S1699 SC1 development solution, the one most used in 2014 and 2015. In fact, this option provides greater support going into turns which favours a more precise ride. The début of the new T1616 was also good, an SC1 compound tyre that had never before been brought to the races but which the riders had tested during the tests at Portimão in June and which was quite popular here at Jerez thanks to its greater stability and precision with respect to the standard SC1. Six riders in all used this second solution, including the two Kawasaki standard bearers, Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea. The second most used solution was the new T1616, an SC1 compound tyre that had never before been brought to the races but which the riders had the opportunity to test during the tests at Portimão in June. A total of seven riders used this second solution, including the two Kawasaki standard bearers, Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea On the rear the two available solutions were more or less equally popular with the riders. Chosen by about 3/5 of the riders, the T0611 SC0 development solution was introduced at Imola and then also brought to Portimão, Misano, Laguna Seca and Sepang. It uses a very soft compound which is able to provide an extremely high level of grip if used at high temperatures. On the first four rows of the grid all the riders used this solution with the exception of Canepa, Baiocco and Salom. The riders who did not use this tyre opted for the Standard SC0. In the Supersport class about 80% of the riders chose the SC1 compound S1485 development solution for the front which was first used at Misano in 2014 and this year in Australia, Spain, Holland, Italy, Great Britain, Portugal, the USA and Malaysia. On the rear, in addition to the soft standard solution, Pirelli brought two development solutions, also in SC0 compound, but in a larger 190/60 size. Of these, the most used was the U0757, which had been developed mainly for Phillip Island.
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| Jonathan Rea action |
Pirelli Best Lap Award: 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 is leading the Superbike standings with 9 Best Laps won, Jules Cluzel the Supersport with 5 Best Laps. These are the riders who won the Pirelli Best Lap Awards at Jerez: WSB Race 1 – Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), 1'41.136 (2nd lap) WSB Race 2 – Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), 1'42.238 (2nd lap) WSS – Patrick Jacobsen (CORE'' Motorsport Thailand), 1'44.177 (3rd lap) The overall standings after eleven rounds are as follows: WSB: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team): 9; 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): 2 The 2015 Pirelli statistics for the Jerez round: • Total number of tyres Pirelli brought: 4282 • Number of solutions (dry, intermediate and wet) for the Superbike class: 5 front and 5 rear • Number of tyres available for each Superbike rider: 35 front and 29 rear • Number of solutions for the Supersport class (dry, intermediate and wet): 5 front and 5 rear • Number of tyres available for each Supersport rider: 24 front and 26 rear • Temperature in Race 1: air 25° C, asphalt 29° C • Temperature in Race 2: air 29° C, asphalt 43° C • Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 276.9 kms/h, in Race 1 by Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils) at 9th lap. • Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Supercorsa tyres in Supersport: 245.5 kms/h, by Kyle Smith (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) at 2nd lap.