Superbike Magny-Cours, Race 1: First complicated heat for Team Althea

Superbike, Fassi French Round, Race 1. The Althea BMW Racing Team experienced a complicated day at the Magny-Cours circuit, scene of the eleventh round of the championship, with Jordi Torres and Markus Reiterberger finishing in fourteenth and seventeenth position.

The track conditions had a heavy impact on the final classification: they started on a wet track, therefore with rain tyres, the same situation experienced in the Tissot-Superpole heats, where the Althea drivers struggled to gain confidence, as the laps went by the track gradually drying out and this forced most teams to change tyres.
From 12th on the grid, Torres was tenth after the first lap, while Reiti, from the seventh row, recovered many positions at the start and was already 13th after the first corners.
After five laps the German was able to increase his pace, and on the eighth lap he passed in front of his teammate, to take 12th position: at this point, both drivers returned to the garage to fit slicks .
Returning to the track in 20th and 21st place, they quickly recovered some positions in the central phase, before crossing the finish line in 14th and 17th position respectively.

“Definitely a very difficult day, in wet track conditions. We ran a race below our expectations and, although the indications obtained during the Superpole were good, these did not translate into adequate results during the race" – he commented Genesio Bevilacqua – “I'm disappointed, because we had all it takes to have a good race, but we gained too much of a gap. I believe there is also an improvement to be made by our riders in these conditions, because it is necessary to always give our best. As for Raffaele, today he was able to express his full potential, obtaining a good second place, and tomorrow he will therefore start on the front row. Our goal is to finish ahead of the championship leader, hoping that other riders can get in between the two."

“Today's race was difficult. During the wet Superpole we understood some things that were useful for the race, considering that it also started on a wet track. In the warm-up lap we saw that the track was about to dry” – he commented Jordi Torres – “We therefore decided to start on rain tyres, because we thought it was too risky to start on intermediate tyres… We did the best we could, and when the track started to dry out we changed the tyres. It's a shame that we later had a technical problem, which made it difficult to ride well. Let's hope that tomorrow there will be sunshine and that we can manage to have a better race."

“Today was difficult too. We made a small step in FP3 but we weren't as fast as the other riders and I only qualified 20th” – he said Markus Reiterberger – “I started the race well, recovering several positions immediately at the start, but when the track started to dry, I had to come back to change the tyres. Afterwards I no longer found the feeling I had before. I'm not at all happy with this result and we have to work harder to find a solution that allows us to be faster."