Since the start of this Superbike season, the field has been under the yoke of domination Baptist Ducati Panigale V4 R that stunned everyone. The environment had until then lived under the green rule, the color of both Kawasaki and Northern Irishman Jonathan Rea. What to be sad about? Nope. There is still a little hope. The last meeting ofImola showed that the Reds were not invincible. And there will be other opportunities to pop the champagne for Ninja supporters…
During the Superbike race at Imola, the Ducati team rider, Álvaro Bautista, suffered its first defeat this season. After eleven consecutive victories, ranks 2 and 3 taken on the Enzo and Dino Ferrari track marked the end of an intimidating series, allowing Jonathan Rhea riding his Kawasaki to remember everyone fondly. That being said, the Spaniard and the Italian saw their championship lead dented by only 10 points. There are still 43 left...
« We had to try several things to fight for second or third place in Imola " said Baptist. " Victories were out of reach. Our performance was good, but not as good as Jonathan's. That’s why we always looked for something else. In this case, we must dare ».
The Spanish is clear: “ the bike is still very young, we need to improve. We now know that our machine does not perform well on all tracks. We worked hard until Imola, the rest of the season we will work even harder. The character of the Imola track exposed the weaknesses of our bike. Laguna Seca is very similar to Imola, Portimao possibly. I tested in Portimao, but it was only my second time on the Panigale. At that moment I felt better than at Imola. I hope everything will work normally at the next race in Jerez. I know this circuit very well ».
Rea, for his part, confirms: “ Jerez, Donington Park, Laguna Seca and Portimao are good tracks for us, but I'm not sure I can beat Álvaro ».
