It was cool and sunny at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain as round eight of the Superbike World Championship drew to a close today. Yesterday, Kawasaki Puccetti Racing rider Lucas Mahias finished eleventh in Superpole before suffering from some electronics problems in race 1 and crossing the line fourteenth as a result.
As was the case at Magny-Cours, Mahias’ ZX-10R is flaunting the GiVi livery at Barcelona, in honour of the team’s historic sponsor.
This morning, the Frenchman again got away from the fourth row of the grid in the Superpole Race, which got underway in the late morning and ran over a distance of ten laps. Unfortunately, Lucas again struggled with electronics problems and was unable to do better than eleventh.
Race 2, which rounded out this eighth WorldSBK round, ran in the early afternoon. Mahias made a good start but was unable to pick up the pace as he would have liked. He nevertheless finished twelfth, scoring more points to add to his overall tally.
The next Superbike World Championship round will take place over the weekend of 7-9 October at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portimao, Portugal.
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya – Spain – Superbike World Championship
Superpole Race: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Rea (Kawasaki) – 3) Lowes (Kawasaki) – 4) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 5) Rinaldi (Ducati) – 6) Oettl (Ducati) ……11) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Race 2: 1) Bautista (Ducati) – 2) Rinaldi (Ducati) – 3) Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 4) Rea (Kawasaki) – 5) Bassani (Ducati) – 6) Vierge (Honda) ……… 12) Mahias (Kawasaki)
Lucas Mahias
“In the Superpole Race I unfortunately had the same problems that limited me in Race 1. My bike was difficult to ride, especially at this track where the grip is poor. In race 2 the situation improved in terms of the electronics, but with insufficient time to work on the setup, I was unable to pick up the pace as I would have liked. Looking at the positives, we can say that in the end we solved the main problem and I didn’t make any mistakes on track, so I’m sure we’ll be able to do better in the next races.”
