The eighth WorldSBK round heated up today at the Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic with the Superpole and the first of the weekend’s Superbike races.
In yesterday’s free practices, Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Tito Rabat finished nineteenth while today, after making some final changes to the setup of his Ninja during FP3, he competed in Superpole, which establishes the grid positions for the first two races. With a time of 1’33”440, Tito placed twentieth, which meant he lined up on row six of the grid for the afternoon’s first race, which got underway in the rain. Considering the track conditions, the Spaniard and his team opted to use rain tyres. Unfortunately, the rain soon stopped, and the track began to dry. Rabat came into the pits to change his tyres and, once back on track, was able to finish the race in fifteenth place, scoring one championship point in the process.
Tomorrow will see the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider taking part in the Superpole Race and race 2.
Autodrom Most – Czech Republic
Superbike World Championship
Superpole: Superpole: 1) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 2) Petrucci (Ducati) – 3) Rinaldi (Ducati) – 4) Gardner (Yamaha) – 5) Bassani (Ducati) – 6) Rea (Kawasaki) …….. 20) Rabat (Kawasaki)
Race 1: Gara1: 1) Rea (Kawasaki) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Petrucci (Ducati) – 4) Redding (BMW) – 5) Lecuona (Honda) – 6) Locatelli (Yamaha) …… 15) Rabat (Kawasaki)
Tito Rabat
“We earned one point at the end of a very difficult race. The track was wet at first but then the rain stopped and it started to dry, forcing me to come in and change tyres. Despite the pitstop, I was able to reach the points zone, lapping fast in both wet and dry conditions and scoring a result that leaves us hopeful ahead of tomorrow’s races. We’ll now analyse the data collected to try and further improve the bike setup. I want to thank the team and all our sponsors.”
