The second day making up round three of the Superbike World Championship played out today at the Estoril circuit in Portugal, with Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Lucas Mahias taking part in the final free practice, in Superpole and race 1.
Yesterday, the Frenchman finished the first two practices in tenth place, with a best time of 1’37”467, while this morning, in dry but cloudy conditions, Mahias set a 1’38”069, which saw him place twelfth in the combined standings.
In Superpole Lucas put in a very strong performance. Improving considerably on his previous best time (1’36”674), the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider rounded out the session in tenth place. This meant that he lined up on the fourth row of the grid for the afternoon’s 21-lap race.
But it proved to be an unlucky one for the Frenchman, who was conditioned by some electronic problems right from the start. This meant that Lucas was unable to ride as he would have liked or exploit the potential of his Ninja. Mahias did well to complete the race anyway, crossing the line in seventeenth place.
Tomorrow morning will see Mahias take part in the Superpole race and the second and final race making up this third WorldSBK round.
Estoril Circuit – Lisbon – Portugal – Superbike World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 2) Bautista (Ducati) – 3) Rea (Kawasaki) – 4) Gerloff (Yamaha) – 5) Rinaldi (Ducati) ……….. 12) Mahias (Kawasaki
Superpole: 1) Rea (Kawasaki) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Bautista (Ducati) – 4) Redding (BMW) – 5) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 6) Rinaldi (Ducati) ……. 10) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Race 1: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Rea (Kawasaki) – 4) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 5) Vierge (Honda) – 6) Lecuona (Honda).…. 17) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Lucas Mahias
“Today’s race was a real disaster. Right from the start, I had issues with the electronics and it was all I could do to finish the race, trying not to make mistakes as I had no traction and risked losing grip at the front on several occasions. I’m really disappointed, not only about eh result which definitely doesn’t reflect our potential, but also because the practices and qualifying went really well and we could have run a great race. Now we’ll try to solve these problems and make up for today in tomorrow’s races”.
