SBK, Prosecco DOC German Round, Race2: difficulties for Honda

Stefan Bradl had certainly imagined a better home round: forced to withdraw in the first race following a crash in FP2 which caused an injury to his left elbow, in the second heat he was unable to go beyond 13th place, which brings points but not much confidence.

The new CBR is still in the full development phase and it is now clear that any plan to stay permanently with direct opponents is postponed until next year.
Things didn't go any better for new teammate Davide Giugliano, currently hired only for the round at the Lausitzring to take the very heavy place of Nicky Hayden, only 17th at the end of a frustrating race, in which he suffered a lot with the tyres.
The pure speed was there but the tires didn't respond as the rider expected and, degrading quickly, they didn't help him try to move up.

The World Series Championship will now return in about a month, from 15 to 17 September, at Portugal's Autodromo do Algarve.

“It was nice to be able to take part in the race. I decided to run because when the adrenaline of running hits you you don't feel the pain as much. I feel like it was the right decision not to do yesterday's race to be almost okay today. Unfortunately, my feeling with the bike wasn't perfect today, because it was nervous over the many potholes and I also suffered a bit when exiting corners as usual. Not having raced yesterday certainly didn't help. I had to keep my pace under control for the most part, but in the final laps I could have pushed harder to overtake De Rosa before the finish line. I'm a bit disappointed with the race and obviously with the weekend in general, but I hope that for the next round we will be able to take a bigger step forward” – said Stefan Bradl.

“This morning we made a good step forward in the warm up and I managed to be much faster than I had been the whole weekend. I felt good with the bike at the start of the race and managed to make some overtakes, but unfortunately after 4 or 5 laps the rear tire started to degrade, and it was impossible for me to continue that good pace. There's not much else to say, really, it's part of racing. It's a shame, because we worked very well this morning and my feeling with the Fireblade had improved significantly since yesterday" – he said David Giugliano.