The twelfth and final round of the 2023 WorldSBK championship continued today at the Circuito de Jerez Angel Nieto in Spain.
This weekend, Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Tito Rabat is competing with a factory Ninja KRT, a bike with which he began to build confidence already yesterday. The Spaniard was only able to complete one practice session though due to wet track conditions following overnight rain.
In this morning’s FP3, Rabat improved considerably on his best time of yesterday and finished sixteenth with a time of 1’41”415. The Superpole came soon after, a session that established grid positions for the subsequent first race. Lowering his time by more than a second, Tito set a best of 1’40”227 to place seventeenth. This result meant that he lined up on the sixth row of the grid for Race 1. Rabat made pretty a good start to the race, his strong pace allowing him to make several passes. Avoiding mistakes, the Spaniard climbed as far as eleventh, finishing just a second from the top ten. An excellent result that proves just how quickly the Spaniard was able to adapt to his new bike, as well as confirming the competitiveness of the factory Ninja KRT. Manuel Puccetti’s team thanks Kawasaki Europe and KRT for their valuable support.
Tomorrow Rabat will return to the track for the Superpole Race and Race 2, the last race of the 2023 WorldSBK season.
Circuito Angel Nieto – Jerez de la Frontera – Spain
Superbike World Championship
Superpole: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Aegerter (Yamaha) – 3) Lowes (Kawasaki) – 4) Rea (Kawasaki) – 5) Gardner (Yamaha) – 6) Oettl (Ducati) .………. 17) Rabat (Kawasaki)
Race 1: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 3) Locatelli (Yamaha) – 4) Rea (Kawasaki) – 5) Petrucci (Ducati) – 6) Oettl (Ducati) ………..11) Rabat (Kawasaki)
Tito Rabat
“I didn’t make the fastest start but as the race went on, my confidence with the bike grew and I got into a good rhythm, to the point that I was one of the fastest on track. I needed this race to better understand my Ninja. If we’d had two practices yesterday instead of just one, I’d probably have done even better in today’s races. We’ll try again in tomorrow’s races; I’m feeling confident.”
