VOL. 54 ISSUE 13 APRIL 4, 2017 P51
Davies' second-day
performance was epic,
no matter his first race
situation.
Rea also had a head
and chest cold to deal
with, and a Davies that,
despite his practice
issues, still used the
all-new qualifying tires
to take a new track-best
with the superpole.
"We used first gear in
accelerating out of the
last corner onto the back
straight today but still it
was our biggest weak-
ness," Rea said of his
bike's lack of corner exit
push and top speed in relation
to Davies. "I did not have a lot
of energy today, worse than
yesterday, but I had a really good
fight and without doubt this is the
strongest track historically for
Chaz and Ducati."
Marco Melandri's progress
continues apace, as he took a
season-best second and third
for Ducati. Sykes progress was
faltering by his previous high
standards but third and fourth
would be results most factory
riders would take on a weekend
when they had picked up an
infection so nasty he was living
on fluids.
The growth of the Pata Ya-
maha team into the pre-eminent
chasers of the existing Kawasaki
and Ducati omnipotence carried
on in Spain. Alex Lowes hit tech
issues that ran him off track in
race two, but Michael van der
Mark followed up one fifth with a
second one in race two. Lowes
had been fourth in race one.
The official Honda team had
some improvements in the
consistency of their electronics
packages for this round, but the
Red Bull pairing of Stefan Bradl
and Nicky Hayden had tough
weekends all through. Bradl was
Nicky Hayden (69) had a
troubled weekend. Again.
Mahias (144) beats Morias to the line by inches.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
GOLD
&
GOOSE
