Kawasaki Puccetti Racing is on track at historic Donington Park for the fifth Supersport World Championship round. It’s a brand-new track for both riders, with neither Can Oncu or Yari Montella having raced at the Leicestershire circuit before.
The riders used the first practice session, which ran this morning under cloudy skies but on a dry track, to build confidence with the new track and start, along with their respective technicians, the work to set up their Kawasaki ZX-6R bikes. Oncu (1’32”533) finished in tenth place, while Montella (1’32”676) closed twelfth.
In the afternoon’s second session, the Turk made significant progress, rounding out the day in eighth place with a time of 1’31”568. The Italian suffered a crash, though fortunately suffered no physical consequences, and was unable to improve as much as he’d hoped. With a time of 1’32”276, he placed eighteenth in the combined standings at the end of day one.
Oncu e Montella will be back on track tomorrow for Superpole and the first of the races making up this British race weekend.
Donington Park – Castle Donington – UK – Supersport World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 2) Van Straalen – 3) Bulega (Ducati) – 4) Cluzel (Yamaha) – 5) De Rosa (Ducati) ……… 8) Oncu (Kawasaki) ………18) Montella (Kawasaki)
Can Oncu
“It definitely hasn’t been an easy day, but in the end it proved positive. After a long break, it’s never easy to return to the track, but I was soon enjoying being back aboard my Kawasaki. I finished eighth, but we’re not actually far from the front. We worked well on the bike and so I’m sure that we can be more competitive tomorrow and then fight for the top positions in the race. My aim is the podium.”
Yari Montella
“Not an easy day and this afternoon I also suffered a small crash. I’ve never raced here before and we need to work more to better adapt the bike to my riding style at this track. We’ll analyse all the data we’ve collected today to better understand how to modify both the bike and my riding, so that we’re ready for tomorrow’s Superpole and the race, in which we want to be back fighting for the kind of positions we deserve.”
