VOL. 50 ISSUE 23 JUNE 11, 2013
OUND
P83
Briefly...
The Crescent Suzuki team has
gone back to basics to try and get
rid of the nervous front-end feeling
that has held back Leon Camier
recently. Camier indicated that he
was close to the feeling he had in
2012, on the 16.5-inch tires. Never a fan of the 17s, Camier should
have been able to look at Portimao
as a great potential venue for his
GSX-R.
Ducati Alstare has come up with
some new settings for Carlos Checa to try on the Panigale 1199R, as
myriad problems continue to hold
him back, even though his inflamed
shoulder tendon is still not 100 percent. The main issue is the chassis,
which allows the rear of the Ducati
to unhook too easily; yet he also
loses some time when he tries to
make use of what used to be another Ducati strong point - corner
entry. Checa was an encouraging
seventh in Superpole and finished
sixth in race two.
The Portuguese World
Superbike round gets
started with the run down
the hill toward turn one
with Eugene Laverty (58)
leading Jonathan Rea (65),
Marco Melandri (33) and
the rest of the pack.
and yet only has one race win.
His Aprilia teammate Eugene
Laverty has four race wins now,
including race two at Portimao,
giving him more wins than any
other in 2013. But with another
mechanical DNF to his name in
race one, it was Guintoli who left
the happiest. For Laverty he had
to win race two.
"To lose those points in race
one was tough, but I knew I had
to finish the second race and that
made me nervous," Laverty said.
Leon Haslam came back to ride at
Portimao after being forced out of
the Donington round, but was 1.5
seconds off on the first day as his
injured leg is still holding him back.
"I should have been a second faster, but struggled to get more than
a couple of tenths, which wasn't
good enough," Haslam said after
Superpole. "I've accepted the fact
that we're not on the pace again
here and the races are going to
be difficult, but the developments
we're making on the bike are only
going to help when I'm back fit."
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