The second day of the tenth WorldSBK round played out today at the San Juan Villicum Circuit in Argentina. Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Lucas Mahias finished yesterday’s free practices in seventeenth place, but in this morning’s third and final practice the Frenchman improved on his time to close fifteenth with a 1’38”422.
In Superpole Lucas significantly lowered his time once more to qualify thirteenth with a 1’37”634, which meant a fifth row start for the first of the Argentinian weekend’s races, which took place this afternoon.
Lucas made a very strong start and was immediately up into twelfth place. Battling as part of the chasing group, Mahias maintained a strong pace and climbed to eleventh, a position he held to the line, just missing out on the top and earning another five championship points.
Lucas will return to the track tomorrow for the Superpole Race and the second and final WorldSBK race.
Circuito San Juan Villicum – Argentina – Superbike World Championship
Combined free practice results: 1) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 2) Bautista (Ducati) – 3) Lowes (Kawasaki) – 4) Lecuona (Honda) – 5) Rea (Kawasaki) ……. 15) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Superpole: 1) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 2) Rea (Kawasaki) – 3) Bautista (Ducati) – 4) Lecuona (Honda) – 5) Redding (BMW) – 6) Baz (BMW) …… 13) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Race 1: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Rea (Kawasaki) – 3) Bassani (Ducati) – 4) Lecuona (Honda) – 5) Rinaldi (Ducati) – 6) Lowes (Kawasaki) …… 11) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Lucas Mahias
“A good race. I’m not totally satisfied with the result but, considering my starting position and my results in practice, we’ll take it. It wasn’t an easy race, but I was able to maintain a good pace and manage the tyres. We also collected some important data relating to the electronics and we’ll try to exploit that in the next races, starting tomorrow. I want to thank the team for that, and for all their hard work so far this weekend.”
