WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 51 ISSUE 17 APRIL 29, 2014 P77
two by the team as both suffered
engine issues in race one.
"In the end I was trying to hang
on," said Guintoli after race one.
"The gap was coming down,
but I made two mistakes and he
probably took two big chunks
out of the gap then. To pass is
difficult here, so I would like to
think he wouldn't have passed
and he maybe thinks he would
have. We can never tell now be-
cause the red flag handed out
the result."
Sykes was gracious in defeat
and even acknowledged that a
pass in such conditions, over
one of his main championship
rivals, would not have been a
foregone conclusion.
"I started to get to Sylvain, and
he had a good pace, but in the
last few laps we were really star-
ing to take three or four tenths
a lap out of him," said Sykes. "I
felt by the end of the race I could
have caught him but passing is
another issue. I am not the ar-
rogant type to say I would have
passed him, but we certainly
had the bike to challenge for the
win in race one. When I saw the
red flag for me it was a little bit
like Australia. In racing you have
to be in the right place at the
right time and Sylvain was in the
right place."
In race two, an eventual race
two that started two hours af-
ter the scheduled kick-off time,
the start was delayed just as
the planned dry 21-lap race was
about to go ahead.
Then it was back to the pits
for wheel and bike changes.
And then the grid lined up again
and Guintoli headed out on his
own again, only for the rains to
quadruple in intensity, puddles
to form almost instantly and vis-
Briefly...
Giulio Bardi, team manager of the
Team Hero EBR project, explained
the reasons why the gap between
the EBR and the rest is still stubborn-
ly wide, and around five seconds per
lap at Assen. "There was not a lot of
time between Aragon and here, but
we have done some bits and pieces.
We had to contend with the noise
level and that was an issue in Ara-
gon. We have put a patch on it for
now and we will have to rework it that
way that maybe can give us a little
bit of an edge. We had some more
power with the old exhaust and we
didn't really lose that much, but we
lost some power in an area where we
did not want to lose it. So that is an
area we will need to confront. Right
now we are much heavier than we
would like to be. That is something
we definitely need to work on."
Kawasaki rider Loris Baz had his
Saturday spoiled after he was fined
for not respecting the red flags in a
morning practice session at Assen
that was stopped twice for oil spills.
He received two penalty points on
But in race two it all went wrong
for Guintoli (50) when he was
chasing race winner Jonathan Rea
(65). Guintoli was highsided out
of second place, but was able to
remount to finish ninth.
continued on next page
