English
Italiano
The sixth round of the 2016 SBK is taking place in torrid conditions, and the riders with Genesio Bevilacqua's Althea BMW team faced today's race 1 in temperatures of 32 degrees with a track temp. of 46, battling both the heat and their rivals over the 16-lap race.
Markus Reiterberger and Jordi Torres started the race from sixth and eighth respectively. Both riders lost a few positions during lap one, but from lap six they embarked on a great recovery, constantly increasing their pace, with the German able to reach fourth position just before he was forced to retire due to a technical problem with S1000 RR.
A pity for him as he had proved to be very fast, having just got the better of both Hayden on the Honda and Giugliano on the Ducati, both factory bikes. His result went up in smoke on lap twelve, with “Reiti” stating that his BMW had switched itself off, leading to his retirement from the race...
“My start was not bad though I lost a little through the first laps. I wanted to save the rear tyre in the initial stages but after five or six laps I felt I could push and my rhythm was really good. I passed Hayden and Giugliano and got up to fourth place."
The German rider showed great pace, but then something happened...
"Suddenly my bike switched off. I tried to turn it back on and continue, hoping to save a few points, but then the same thing happened and so I was forced to stop. I’m disappointed about what happened but at the same time I'm confident for tomorrow."
Despite retiring, Markus seems confident.
"Sure, in the sense that we were making a very fast race and we found some good solutions for my bike. I hope that conditions are similar tomorrow and that we can complete a good race.”
Spaniard Torres, after a difficult start was tenth throught the first corners, but then reacted and made up position after position, lapping fast and fighting first with Van Der Mark before getting in front of Hayden and Giugliano to reach fourth place, a position he held to the line: “I needed to take it easy early on and save the tyre as much as possible. I think we managed the situation well, also because I was able to hold off Lowes at the end, despite a tyre that was practically finished."
The Spanish, who rode in Moto2, and last year in SBK with Aprilia explained what was the key of improvement:
"During practice we’d worked to have a fast and consistent pace and our strategy seems to have paid off. I think we managed the situation well, closing fourth. I’m sorry for Markus, as I was hoping to have an Althea BMW derby with him in the final stages."
With Sykes, Rea and Davies being too fast, Torres has clear aims for tomorrow:
"Markus and I have proved to be strong here and we’ve collected a lot of information that will be useful for tomorrow. The front guys are still a way ahead of us and so my aim for tomorrow’s race is to try and be even more competitive and reduce that gap as much as possible.”
