Lucas Mahias will be the third Frenchman entered in WSBK this season, and the Kawasaki rider will share the starting grid with Loris Baz on BMW and Christophe Ponsson who will ride a Yamaha. Mahias' journey is not simple because it is punctuated by injuries and pain, which led to a few racing incidents and then to a decision by his team to put him on rest. In Jerez, for the first tests of the year, he found his troops and his ZX-10R with the great satisfaction of no longer suffering. More than a relief, it's a liberation...
The career of Lucas Mahias in WSBK will finally perhaps only begin in this 2022 season. The previous campaign, in fact, was more than disrupted by injuries, a period of suffering which handicapped the Frenchman, until eventually putting him on the sidelines . Thus, at Jerez, the tricolor made his first laps in WorldSBK for almost four months, when his team Puccetti Kawasaki forced him to rest due to a scaphoid injury.
The beginner season Mahias ended following an accident involving Chaz Davies at the Catalunya round last September, but the hand and wrist injury he suffered began at Assen, bringing to five the number of rounds where the former WorldSSP rider was not at 100 %.
Lucas Mahias: “ I am very happy after four months without riding a motorcycle«
Mahias achieved the fourth fastest time during the first of two days of testing at Jerez, while his colleague from Kawasaki, alex lowes, was the fastest. After returning to the track, Mahias told the official World Superbike website: “ I am very happy. Four months without riding a motorcycle, it's very nice for me to jump on the Kawasaki. These four months may be more like the first time in seven, eight months to be pain free on the bike“. In fact, he specifies: “ after Assen I continued to ride with pain, but this is the first time I'm ready and my body feels good. The most important thing is that I don't have pain in my scaphoid"
Regarding his program for the second day, Mahias looks to continue the work he did on day one, which includes working on suspensions, electronics and his own riding style after being away for so long: “ I'm going to work on the suspension. It's the direction to take, but also the electronics and my driving style because it's not perfect. I'm not a newcomer this year, but it's kind of the same thing because I missed the middle of the season. I have a lot of different things to work on " finished Lucas Mahias. 2021 was his first season in the Superbike category. In 21 races, he had three top-10 results and suffered seven crashes.
Note that the Kawasaki of French will be equipped in Öhlins and not in Showa like the factory Ninja: “ iThere has been no Kawasaki with Öhlins before, we are trying this route“, noted Puccetti. « Lucas couldn't move his left hand For three of the four months it will take time for him to feel comfortable on the bike again. We have a lot of innovations on the motorcycle", team boss Manuel Puccetti told speedweek in Jerez. “ One of them is the new suspension elements, it's a big step for us. But there are also improvements to the aerodynamics, gearbox and cooler. We built a new bike for Lucas that is slightly better in every area"
