After finishing 5th in the World Championship World SBK Supersport last year thanks to GMT94, Valentine Debise is back this year on a Yamaha R6, but this time with the Evan Bros. team.
Too fiery during the first race in Australia, the Albigensian then took three 5th places which gave him the same 7th place in the provisional general classification.
On the occasion of the release of his second video shot in Barcelona and intended for his followers, he was kind enough to answer our questions…
Valentin, can you tell us about your weekend in Catalonia where you finished 5th twice? You still have to be satisfied?
“Yes, satisfied to be regularly at the front, since I have scored three 5th places in a row. It's a circuit where I did well last year but this year we started off really difficult with the first free practice sessions where I was 25th. So all the same, the team was able to raise the bar. I thought I could do a little better than that, but what is very positive is that despite the problem we encountered with the settings of the Bike, the team was able to raise the bar and bring me performance to the as the weekend progresses. So we would have had the race on Monday, I think we would have been good (laughs). But today, the race weekends are very condensed with qualifying starting on Friday afternoon, so that means you shouldn't miss out. But I know that there are teams where we start with a problem and we never resolve it, whereas there, little by little, we still managed to find performance, so that's positive. And then, for me, on the driving side, I drove better than at Phillip Island, so I'm happy. I worked well on the points on which the team asked me to improve, particularly on the acceleration phases, so it’s only positive.”
So Barcelona is still a very special circuit with this long straight line going downhill, and we saw that you really had to be on the slipstream to be able to benefit from it. In the first race, I saw you often being overtaken by the Ducati on the straight, but trying to regain your position by braking, which you sometimes managed to do. On the other hand, in the second part of the 2nd race no, because you were very close to the lead, but only the 2nd and 3rd drivers could take advantage of the slipstream to successively overtake each lap. Have you ever been able to enjoy that?
“The second race was in two parts because there was a red flag, and in the first part it's true that I was a little behind. I was behind and following, I just wanted to follow the routine to really save my tires and not get involved in the fight like I did in the first race, not hit the tires, because what is essential on this circuit, it is tire management. It's quite easy to increase the pace and follow the best, but the problem is that for example if I got behind Huertas and followed him, I knew that I wasn't finishing the race, compared to the grip available that I had. So that's why it's always difficult to analyze these races from the outside, because there are always drivers who start quickly but who finish badly, and others who start badly and who finish well. So, after the red flag, in the 2nd part of the second race, when we started again after the red flag, it's true that it started very quickly and I didn't manage to really increase my pace ? Finally, I increased my pace but not as much as the others. I was missing 2 or 3/10 and it was only in the last of the 5 laps that I managed to regain some rhythm, or at least to keep the same rhythm while the others dropped off. So there would have been 2 more laps, the race would have been different, but hey, that's how it is. Afterwards, listen, I finished 7/10 from the first so we shouldn't say that everything is rubbish. It's certain that the place is not the best, but it's not far. »
We can't help but ask you the question about the little rivalry between the two French people in the Supersport category, as there will be 2 French people who we will also follow in Moto2 JuniorGP. Is this rivalry just a vision of outside spectators, or do you feel it as healthy emulation?
“Honestly, I definitely look at Lucas' results, above all because he rides a Yamaha like me. I have great respect for what he does, for the performances he gives. For example on my networks, I did not fail to congratulate Manzi who won and Lucas who came 3rd. So here is. Afterwards, it is certain that we are not friends in life, and that he sometimes tends to be a little more aggressive towards me than towards the others on the track. But hey, listen, I don’t care, I live my life and I treat him like the others, that’s it.”
You released a new video today…
" Yes. We couldn't do the Phillip Island race, but as a result my cameraman-editor came to Barcelona. So we developed a new topic, and we took the opportunity to present the team, to show you the box, and to show the truck as well. There were the pass winners who were able to chat in the video and I took the opportunity to answer the technical questions that people had asked in the previous video. So there you have it, the video is going to be nice, there won't be any action images because we don't have the right, but I think it's cool, so I hope you'll like it.”
