World Supersport

The second batch of post-race press releases after this weekend's World Superbike round at Monza, issued a day later because of the confusion over the results:

Press releases from some of the World Superbike and World Supersport teams after several incident-packed races at Monza:

Motor racing has been described as drag racing between corners. Never is this adage truer than at Monza. Speed out of corners is paramount, especially out of the Parabolica, the fast last corner that leads on to the equally fast start/finish straight. The faster you exit a corner, the sooner you reach your top speed. Monza has two long straights, both with fast corners leading onto them; this is what makes it different from other tracks with long straights. Fuel limits and tyres come into play in a different way here than any other track on the calendar. The other unique aspect of Monza is the controversies that arise from its uniqueness, and this weekend was no different in that respect.

Fourth time lucky, the World Supersport race was reduced to a ten-lap dash at the end of the day.

The World Supersport race was halted after four laps after the front four riders all went down on oil that was not spotted from a third lap crash at Variante Della Roggia. The restart lasted for two laps before a rider crashed out of the Ascari chicane, immolating the motorbike and destroying the ablative air fencing; an automatic red flag. On the third start of the race, a ten-lap dash, a rider ploughed through Prima Variente, the first chicane, taking a few other racers with him. A third red flag was waved and the race was postponed until after the second World Superbike race. Nobody was significantly hurt in any of the incidents. 

Press releases from the World Superbike and World Supersport teams after qualifying on Saturday at Monza:

Rain topped and tailed the day, hopefully squeezing the last drops out before the races tomorrow so that Monza can enjoy a very Italian mother's day. One lucky mother will be getting a set of Jules Cluzel leathers, stolen from his trailer, unless they're recovered before tomorrow. Another mother hoping to be lucky is Mrs Lowes, mother of Alex and Sam, who saw Alex Lowes win a BSB race on Monday and Sam Lowes win last Superbike race at Assen.

World Supersport qualifying looked more like a race, with large groups of riders clumped together in the fast sections, trying to get a slipstream advantage.

Toward the end of the morning's free practice session, it looked likely the front row would end up an all-Kawasaki affair, but Sam Lowes was able to snatch his familiar position at the top in the flag. With both Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret recording higher speed trap figures, the slip stream effect in the race should prove important, as usual.

Results:

Press releases from the World Superbike and World Supersport teams after the first day of practice at Monza:

At Italy's temple of speed, last year's World Superbike weekend was ruined by rain and tyres. This morning's session was equally plagued, giving everyone a wasted morning as the forecast for the remainder of the weekend is sun, sun and more sun. The good weather finally turned up, courtesy of a delay in qualifying, and the slicks went on. Top speeds increased by 50kmh and lap times decreased by 20 seconds.

Kev Goghlan takes provisional pole alongside Andrea Antoneli, showing once again that they have skill and speed in the wet.

Results:

Wet practice at Monza meant times were down, several riders didn't even head out and the session was red-flagged mid-way through the session. After the restart, this didn't stop our regular fast qualifier Sam Lowes recording the best lap of the session, with a 2'01.016, an unsurprising 13 seconds off lap record pace.

Results:

Press releases from the World Superbike and World Supersport teams ahead of this weekend's WSBK round at the iconic Monza circuit: