VOL. 51 ISSUE 28 JULY 15, 2014 P49
race starts. Third was made pos-
sible by Melandri's fall but also
Rea's great showing in his first
visit to Laguna Seca.
For Guintoli it was nearly there
in each race.
"My plan was to stay behind
Marco and attack at the end of
race one, but from two-thirds
of the race Marco was really
smooth and really fast and I could
not follow him," the Frenchman
said. "In race two in the last two
laps Tom was very strong and in a
short race like this we were riding
like it was qualifying laps."
For Rea, a podium was as
good as a win.
"Honestly, that was as much
as I could expect in my first week-
end here, especially after my
mistake in Superpole yesterday,"
Rea said. "My guys gave me a
really good bike this weekend,
although we are struggling a lot
with top speed."
Melandri went through a roller
coaster, with a win in the opener
and a self-inflicted fall in race two,
when he just braked too late.
"My lap times were not as fast
as I expected in race one, but in
the middle I did not drop down
my lap time a lot," he said. "I
knew it would be tough the last
10 laps but fortunately for me I
could see Sylvain was not as fast
as me for the last 10 laps and I
could breathe a bit more. In race
two I was way too fast into the last
corner. I just braked 10 or 15 me-
ters later than I should have, so it
was just a stupid mistake."
Briefly...
Leon Camier had a one-off ride on
the MV Agusta at Laguna Seca and
was impressed by some aspects of
it, while realizing they still have a long
way to go yet. Despite losing track
time to technical issues in the first
of three practices on Friday, Camier
said, "I think this bike has potential
for sure, but there is also a lot they
need to work on. It feels like its own
thing, not like the BMW or anything
else I have ridden. It is softer by a
long way, very soft like the whole
thing you can feel is nearly not con-
nected. When you are on the gas
there is a lot of grip from the bike,
but it is a new package so they need
a lot of time testing."
cal and hard work so it stands you
in good stead when you get to some
of these more open, flowing World
Championship tracks.
Alex Lowes whizzes down the front
straight at Laguna.
