[FIM CEV] The incredible feat: How a Superstock 600 on road tires beat the regular Moto2s in the Moto2 European Championship

Beating racing motorcycles on racing tires with a road bike on road tires doesn't exist. This is obviously impossible. At least it was until last Sunday when in the Moto2 European Championship Ivo Lopes on his standard Yamaha R6 and road Dunlops finished 5.9 ahead of second and 11.3 ahead of third.

What happened ? According to the drivers and teams present, the Estoril circuit is quite unusual, with bitumen joints, and as seen in the images of the race, uneven grip marks. There were also many falls, both during testing and during the race, in all categories.

Only one Portuguese rider, Ivo Lopes, participated with a Yamaha R6 Superstock, and his perfect knowledge of the Lusitanian track stood him in good stead.

Here are the images from the race. Here are those of all the tests. The one concerned by this article (race 1 Moto2) starts from the beginning because it is the first.

Qualified fifth, Ivo Lopes started the fastest, then opened up a gap of more than 3 seconds on his pursuers. Largely comfortable in the lead then with more than 5 seconds ahead of Augusto Fernandez, Ivo and his R6 Superstock set the best time in the race in 1'46.165. Shortly after halfway, Lopes was 7.8 ahead of Augusto Fernandez, and around twenty seconds ahead of the group made up of Jesko Raffin, Dimas Ekky, Edgar Pons and Marcel Brenner. Raffin set the fastest lap in 1'45.294 (almost a second faster than Lopes' previous best time). At the end of the race, Lopes maintained his 7 seconds lead over Fernandez, who counted the same on Raffin and Ekky. Brenner was fifth at 26.

And this is how, for the first time in the history of motorcycle racing, a rider equipped with a Superstock 600 found himself at the top of the Moto2 European Championship!

Congratulations to Ivo Lopes for his feat worthy of a great pilot, congratulations to Yamaha for the astonishing competitiveness of its production R6 against the Moto2, and congratulations to Dunlop whose GP Pro D213 road tire is clearly excellent.

Photos © FIM CEV Repsol / Dorna