Superbike Magny-Cours, Race 1: Close duel at Kawasaki

Superbike, Fassi French Round, Race 1. Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea were the protagonists of a difficult race, in which they studied and marked each other for all 21 laps, almost as if there were no other opponents on the track.
In this home match, the one who can smile more than the other is certainly the reigning Champion, who in extremely complicated conditions lost only 3 points to his rival, thanks to Sykes' third place and his fourth position.

At Magny-Cours, scene of the eleventh round of the championship, the weather conditions, the choice of tires and the pit stop tactics represented decisive variables in the first heat and the two KRT drivers opted for different choices.
Both started on wet tyres, on lap 13 they had to make a pit stop to change them: Rea was more conservative and mounted intermediates, Sykes was more courageous and opted for slicks.

“The asphalt was wet at the start and we had already had a problem in the last race in Germany, so it was important to finish the race. I was about to change tires two laps earlier, but it was still a bit dangerous with the three left corners” – he commented Tom Sykes – “I think we had a good race considering the pit stop, but perhaps unfortunately the calculations were not correct. When I returned to the track my times were very competitive compared to those of the others, except that there were only a few laps left to go. That's how races are. I'm grateful to be able to get on the podium in these difficult conditions, things could easily have gone another way. So this is good, but tomorrow I hope there will be an entirely dry race to try to improve the result."

“It was a game of strategy and unfortunately we were not successful. The bike was working well and in the first part of the race I was patient, I set times behind Tom. Our main rival now is Tom and he had fitted rain tyres, this made the decision to return to the garage much easier to make” – he declared Jonathan Rhea – “I'm just a little disappointed in myself for not being clear during the pit stop, when asked for slik tyres. I didn't have full confidence and expected the intermediate to last longer, as the track needed a lot of time to dry. When I left the pit lane with the intermediate tires I noticed that it was more difficult to find the same lateral feeling that the slicks had. All in all I'm happy because we made some mistakes today, but we finished in fourth place and didn't lose too many points. Being the championship leader I behaved more conservatively today."

The challenge will be renewed today in Race 2, starting at 13pm.