After the 3rd fall of the season, the game seems to be over for Rea
When the FIM Commission published the speed limit for the new BMW M-1000RR and Kawasaki ZX-10RR just a few days before the season opener in Aragon, the most successful manufacturer in the last five years was cheated of the fruits of its efforts. Many voices then spoke of a deliberate manipulation on the part of the highest racing authority, which should cut the supremacy of the Greens. This goal has undoubtedly been almost achieved, albeit in an extremely unsporting and unfair way from the point of view of many observers. Now, Toprak has to fall or have technical problems several times in order to miss the first world title of his career. However, due to his sometimes excessively harsh attacks on his opponents and the artificial castration of the Kawasaki by the FIM, it could be a shadow over his world championship. The season is not over yet, but everything indicates that the World Cup was as good as over for Rea.
Some rider voices after the first race on Saturday
In the official press release from both the Dorna and the Ducati factory team, the sensitive passages from the interview with the Englishman were deliberately cut out. The runner-up had complained bitterly about Razgatlioglu’s once again unfair driving style. We recorded the original interview and find it very questionable that both FIM and Dorna are trying to minimize such incidents. Especially in view of the fatal accidents involving three young drivers, this is absolutely incomprehensible and, not only from our point of view, completely irresponsible.
Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing): “It was a good race and if I have to be honest, I didn’t expect to have the pace to fight for victory in the first place. When I took the lead, I tried to build a gap and use the duel between Rea and Razgatlioglu. The battle with Toprak was really tough in the last few laps. Tomorrow, I’ll try to stay up front and be more aggressive to get the win.” (this is the official version, in which the violent criticism of the reckless driving style of the Turk was deliberately left out).
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing): “It was a very close race. I’m a little disappointed because we could have been fighting for third place, but to avoid contact with another driver I had to evade and lost about three seconds. In any case, we had the pace to be on the podium, and I’m happy with that. Tomorrow we have to take a small step to stay on the podium.“
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team, DNF): „That was very frustrating today. I knew if I wanted to get my rhythm, I had to come forward. I could see in the first few laps that I was being beaten, and especially Toprak, who was often able to take the lead. This came as a bit of a surprise, and I couldn’t get away. I could see that I was strong in most areas of the track, but without a clean lap I couldn’t really get into the rhythm. Scott made a mistake on turn 13. From that point on I was in the lead and was a little too risky for a moment. In strong winds, I then pushed too hard on the brakes. I pushed to have an advantage on the starting straight. I had to do this to gain an advantage on this lap. But I didn’t get that far. I’m frustrated for myself, frustrated for the team, but we’ll get another chance tomorrow.”
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team, DNS): „I am very disappointed with the situation. To be honest, I would love to race because, as shown on Friday, I feel very fast and can actually do a few laps on my own. After talking to doctors and team management, they strongly recommend not racing, especially on a physically demanding track like Portimao. When I’m working towards a race simulation, my hand ignites and that could challenge my full recovery for the final two laps of the season, so a tough decision had to be made. Anyway, despite the frustration after the great feeling of yesterday on the bike, there had to be an easy decision to make. Either drive or not, and I was advised to sit out this weekend.”
Leandro Mercado (MIE Honda): „I am very happy because today was a good day for us. With the changes we made for the FP3, I immediately had a good feeling and felt very comfortable on the bike. We had a good qualifying, although I was expecting a little more. The conditions then changed for the race, and it was a bit windy. I got off to a good start, but then got stuck in traffic. After overtaking a couple of drivers, I tried to keep a constant pace. I grabbed Laverty for it and thought I could catch up with Bassani too, but that wasn’t possible in the end. In the end, I won a nice duel with Eugene, who overtook me again in the last few laps. I’m happy because we’ve found what we’ve been missing in other races. Now we found a better set-up for the rear, and that means I can attack more. Before I had to defend myself more, but now I can attack and that’s how I like to drive. I have to thank the whole team for how well we work and have come a long and increasingly successful way since we started this project.”
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha): „The first race wasn’t easy because Jonathan and Scott are very strong here. After Jonny fell, I fought with Scott, and it wasn’t an easy win for me. I’m happy because we were able to win again, but I like to emphasize that it was very difficult to achieve. I had the feeling that we didn’t have enough because the Ducati was very fast on the straight. But I think we can improve a few points for on Sunday and come back stronger. We improve in every race, we also improved my bike this morning because I didn’t feel excellent yesterday, but now the bike is much better. So thanks to my team for this hard work, I’m very happy about the 11th victory of my career. I’m still not looking at the championship. It’s not a good thing that Jonny crashed, but we also push very hard on the track and try everything just to win. I’m glad he’s fine, I know he’ll come back stronger on Sunday. Now I hope that we can improve my bike again tomorrow and that we can fight for victory with him and Scott again.“
Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha): „At first, I feel so sorry for Michael because I made a mistake. I wanted to try to close the gap in front of me and take the lead because I lost a lot of positions if I made a mistake in the first corner. I’m also sorry for the team because I felt we could get good results today. The first part of the race was not easy for me to stay behind Honda and Ducati, and we lost the front group, but this is racing and tomorrow we are sure to be ready. I’m not happy about today because I made a mistake on Saturday morning too, so we’ll see tomorrow, but overall we’re stronger and faster. It was just a stupid mistake and the feeling for tomorrow is good, and we will continue like this.”
Eugene Laverty (BMW): „I’m happy with this race result because we’ve made progress all weekend. The guys did a fantastic job of making the BMW feel like my bike, and I felt at home. We didn’t qualify well, but we had fantastic first corners and were able to make up a lot of positions. Unfortunately, we had a clutch problem at the start and I had difficulty entering the corner, but once I got used to this problem I found a good rhythm and got a good result. Without this problem at the beginning, I think we could have been higher today.“
Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda, DNF): “What a shame after my crash. Fortunately, I’m otherwise absolutely fine. I didn’t get a brilliant start and was pretty far behind by the end of the first lap, but I quickly recovered and passed several drivers to gradually move up to third place. On the last lap, Loris overtook me through the first corner and I thought if I followed him the whole lap I wouldn’t have a good chance of attacking him, so I overtook him immediately and then just tried to defend my position. In the last corner, I only tried to close the line a little more than usual, but the asphalt is a bit bumpy there. I lost the front and as a result the podium, and that’s a shame because we deserve it here, even more than in Jerez, because we’ve worked really well to adapt the set-up to a tire that I don’t normally ride, to use. We adjusted every detail and were back today, fighting on the front lines. We were also strong in qualifying. Either way, tomorrow is another day, and we will do our best in both races.“
Leon Haslam (HRC Honda, P5): „The top 5 aren’t that bad, but to be honest, I’m a little disappointed because I was quite happy with the bike. It was pretty stable and our lap times were consistent. We lost a bit when braking in some parts of the track, but I was consistently faster than everyone else in the last sector. So there is a lot of positive to be drawn from it as we weren’t far from the podium, but I would have liked to have been closer in the battle for the top three. We definitely took a step in the last few tests, but I wasn’t able to take advantage of that in the last few races, while Alvaro did. We are not that far away yet and will try to improve for tomorrow. The podium is our goal, so we’ll see how the weather turns out. It looks like it will be a little colder tomorrow, so we need to make sure we have the right bike for the conditions and hopefully improve a little after today’s race. We have some great ideas on how to prepare for Sunday.“
Stand in the world championships after race 1 in Portugal
P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 474 YAMAHA
2. JONATHAN REA 429 KAWASAKI
3. SCOTT REDDING 395 DUCATI
4. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 240 DUCATI
5. ANDREA LOCATELLI 227 YAMAHA
6. ALEX LOWES 199 KAWASAKI
7. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 189 BMW
8. GARRETT GERLOFF 180 YAMAHA
9. ALVARO BAUTISTA 169 HONDA
10. TOM SYKES 167 BMW
11. AXEL BASSANI 159 DUCATI
12. CHAZ DAVIES 120 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 115 HONDA
14. KOHTA NOZANE 48 YAMAHA
15. LUCAS MAHIAS 44 KAWASAKI
16. TITO RABAT 41 KAWASAKI
17. LORIS BAZ 33 DUCATI
18. EUGENE LAVERTY 30 BMW
19. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 29 YAMAHA
20. ISAAC VINALES 28 KAWASAKI
21. JONAS FOLGER 20 BMW
22. LEANDRO MERCADO 20 HONDA
23. SAMUELE CAVALIERI 10 DUCATI
24. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
25. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
26. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
27. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI
>WSBK Portimão Preview see separate report on this page.
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