Arriving at the top of the Supersport World Championship in Aragón, tied on points with Randy Krummenacher, Jules Cluzel left Spain in second place, which is nothing dramatic at the start of the season. Corentin Perolari for his part obtained a good sixth position.
During the first day of free practice, Jules Cluzel placed second and Corentin Perolari ninth (out of 26 present). Was this Friday satisfactory?
According to Christophe, “ Yes, I would say that this is the right question because it is what allows us to be optimistic for the races to come. If you look closely, we were very good on Friday. there is a paradox in our weekend: it was during the first free practice session that we drove the fastest, in conditions strictly identical to those we had in the race, for the temperature of the track like that of the air.
“The bike was set up like in Thailand and on the ninth lap Jules' bike set a time of 1'55.1. At that time he was second behind Rosa (in 55.0).”
The third free practice session changed the situation a little with Cluzel fifth and Perolari eighth. On the other hand, Jules couldn't improve his FP1 time (1'55.175)?
“We arrived in FP3 with different settings, and the temperature was much lower because the session was very early in the morning. These were not conclusive, but we could put that down to the cold.”
Was Jules' fourth time in Superpole, 0.389 behind Thomas Gradinger, satisfactory?
“The time did not satisfy us but the performance did. We knew that if he hadn't been hampered in traffic, Jules would be first or second. But this session was really useless to prepare for the race. We were all using unsuitable tires for racing. We therefore stayed with the FP3 settings. With a little more lucidity, we should have returned to those of FP1. But the analysis is always easier afterwards! ".
Were you surprised by Thomas Gradinger's pole position?
" No. I'm not surprised because Gradinger is a very good driver. He's young (Editor’s note: 22 years old, born August 11, 1996). Race after race he is really there. “He did not make the brilliant moves of a Corentin Perolari capable of hanging on to the best over two or three laps. He showed off less. But its rise has been meteoric since last September. For me, he’s a future top driver.”
Jules completed his first laps of the race in third position, then he moved up to fifth, his place at the finish. What is the reason ?
“We wanted to do well but the conditions didn't allow us to validate what we wanted to do, between the rain, the cold, the different tires and few sessions. Clearly, we were wrong. We disrupted a bike that was completely in the running when we arrived at the circuit.”
“We may have some regrets because if we had started with the chassis settings from Thailand, the race would have been completely different. You just need to take the timesheets from FP1 to understand that everything was going well. In any case significantly faster than in the race during which we lost between three and four tenths per lap.”
Corentin Perolari's sixth place must have delighted you?
" Yes really. It’s a real satisfaction, a big step forward. All the work he has done since the start of the year has started to pay off since what we are looking for to work with Corentin is consistency in the race.”
“We saw since Magny-Cours last year that thanks to his energy and his talent, he was able to be with the leading bikes for two or three laps. Then it collapsed.”
“Since Australia, he has imposed a job where he has to save his tires, and there he showed great consistency like in Thailand throughout the race. In pure results, he did no better than last year, that is to say sixth, twelve seconds behind the leaders, but at the finish he was not tired. He realized that he could have given a little more at the start, and that's what he will now have to learn to manage. He was happy, as was the whole team, because we felt a real difference in consistency.”
Photos © GMT94, Yamaha Racing
