Here’s what the World Superbike riders had to say after yesterday’s 10th round at the Silverstone circuit in England and if you happened to miss the races, Italian network La7 has reruns of the entire race weekend that you can watch if you missed Cal Crutchlow sweeping away both races.
For Race 1 just click here, for Race 2 here, and they even have the Superpole session that you can find here here.
Cal Crutchlow (Race 1 – 1st, Race 2 -1st)˝We´ve been trying so hard all year to achieve a win, I´m ecstatic that it has happened at my home race.
It´s been a tough weekend with all the Brits trying hard but we knew we had the pace.
We were worried about tyre wear but it wasn´t too bad.
It was a little bit cooler in the first race which helped our bike as well.
We now need to carry on and fight for the rest of the season.
It´s been a dream come true today, three Brits on the podium for both races is brilliant.
The British fans have been fantastic, they came out today and gave us tremendous support all round the circuit, a brilliant day for me, a brilliant day for Yamaha, Sterilgarda and all our other sponsors.
All credit to Johnny Rea he rode really well in both races but I was able to pick him off with a couple of laps to go.
˝ Jonathan Rea (Race 1 – 2nd, Race 2 – 2nd)In race one Cal had a little bit more pace than me, where I was missing maybe a couple of tenths a lap.
The bike was working very well, but we got let down by the tyre a little bit, I think, because it definitely felt a lot different to the one I used in warm-up this morning.
I thought I might have the pace in race two, but well-done to Cal – he did a great job and rode absolutely superbly.
My team gave me a great bike this weekend that allowed me to at least fight for the wins here.
I’m really happy and really enjoyed riding at Silverstone this weekend and we’ve had a couple of good results to take into the summer break.
Leon Haslam (Race 1- 3rd, Race 2 -4th)Generally, I feel that today has been a bit frustrating because I think it could’ve and should’ve been better.
When our package is perfect, I know I can challenge for wins, but when it is not, it can be a bit of a struggle and that’s how it was today.
I made a bad start in the first race, but managed to close the gap on the leaders and was getting ready to mount an attack on Jonathan (Rea), but had gearbox problems for the last seven laps, so couldn’t push harder and get closer to him.
A podium is not bad though, and it was good to be up there with two other Brits.
We used a different engine in race two, but everything else was the same, including the tyres.
However, this time the grip feeling was completely different and I really had to work hard to keep in the top four or so.
On the last lap, I had a big fight with James (Toseland).
He passed me, but I was determined to get him back and that’s what I did.
On the last turn, he tried to get round the outside of me at the beginning of the start-finish straight and hit me, breaking my tail fairing and exhaust bracket in the process.
It was a bit of a hairy moment, but happily we both stayed on our bikes and crossed the line OK.
It was a tough end to a hard race but, just like race one, I was happy to finish ahead of Max (Biaggi).
It would’ve better, if I could’ve got some more points, but that’s how it went today.
”Michel Fabrizio (Race 1 – 4th, Race 2 – DNF)“Well as we expected, the British riders really had the bit between their teeth today and it was all I could so to stick with them.
I didn’t expect Haslam to get past when he did but once he did, there wasn’t much I could do about it, but nevertheless I’m pretty satisfied with fourth to tell the truth.
In race 2 my rear tyre was moving around a lot and having lost a lot of ground I came in to try to change it but once I went back on track I realized that nothing had changed and, out of the points zone, I retired from the race.
”Max Biaggi (Race 1 – 5th , Race 2 – 6th)“I am coming out of this weekend quite satisfied, even if these are not the placings I could have achieved.
It was difficult here, above all adjusting my RSV4 on the bumpy Silverstone track.
In race 2 I finished sixth behind five English riders.
I think that the home field factor really gave them some extra motivation.
”Leon Camier (Race 1 -6th, Race 2 -3rd)“A fantastic day! Too bad about the sixteenth starting position.
Unfortunately mistakes in Superpole come at a high cost! As the practices showed, the feeling on this circuit was very good from the start and in the race I was able to really push, truly earning a lot of positions.
In the first race I finished behind my team mate.
In race 2 I was able to lock onto the front group straight away, although Crutchlow and Rea unfortunately were already away.
I’m happy for a podium in front of my fans.
It’s also a nice reward for my team and for Aprilia.
” James Toseland (Race 1 – 8th, Race 2 – 5th)˝Race one was ok, the set up we used wasn´t perfect but I made the most of it.
We made a massive change from race one to race two, we switched to something closer to what Cal was using in the first race, it´s the first time we tried it and it really helped us.
Hopefully we´ve found a good direction for the next race.
A big thanks to the team for the change between the races, it got me from where I was in the first to not too far off the podium in the second.
Leon Haslam rode a great race and really covered his lines, I could have been more aggressive with him but I didn´t want to spoil his championship chances.
˝ Shane Byrne (Race 1 – 9th , Race 2 – 8th)“They were very difficult races.
In the first I had tyre problems that prevented me from doing any better.
In the second we sorted the bike and changed the tyre and it went better.
Then towards the end I found myself battling against Guintoli but he was faster than me and I missed out on seventh position.
”Carlos Checa (Race 1 – 7th, Race 2 – 10th)“It’s hard to catch up once you’ve made bad starts.
I wasn’t able to catch the group ahead and it was only towards the end that I was able to match the pace of the guys up front, except for Crutchlow and Rea that is, who were on another level.
We weren’t totally sorted with the bike and neither I nor my bike demonstrated our full potential.
”Troy Corser (Race 1 – 10th, Race 2 – DNF)“We are disappointed with the weekend to be honest.
We came here with high expectations but we really struggled with grip.
We tried a lot of things to improve grip levels but nothing seemed to work.
The only time I felt happy with the bike was in race two but sadly I crashed early on.
Race one I just couldn’t get the power down, I felt the front pushing into most corners and I nearly crashed on numerous occasions.
I think we have a good idea of what caused the problems this weekend, so we just need to go away, work hard and get focused for the races in Germany.
Sylvain Guintoli (Race 1 -12th, Race 2 – 7th)I am actually not sure what happened in race one, but we had tried some harder compound tyres in the morning warm-up and had really got on with them.
So we used them in the first race and they behaved completely differently! I just couldn’t get anywhere near the same lap times and so struggled throughout the race.
It was very frustrating to say the least, but I know that if I had gone any faster, I probably would’ve crashed.
For me, race one was a complete disaster.
Obviously we didn’t want to take that risk again for race two, so we used the same tyre that everybody was using and I was much happier.
It was much more like it.
I was able to get into a better rhythm, go faster and get close to my best lap times.
I got pretty close to Max (Biaggi) and would’ve loved to have passed him because that would’ve been good for the team.
Max Neukirchner (Race 1 -11th, Race 2 – DNF)For me, the first race was one of the best this season.
OK, it wasn’t the best result but it felt great having a bike that I could fight for positions with.
I had a lot of fun and I was able to pass a lot of other guys – it was a very good race for me and felt a little bit like a win! We basically went back to the setting that I used in race two at Assen and it allowed me to brake later and accelerate more early.
The start of race two was like the first and I made some good lap times behind Haga, but then the engine broke after seven laps.
Without that I felt like maybe a top ten was possible so I can take some positives into the summer break and the next round which is in Germany.
Jakub Smrz (Race 1 – 13th, Race 2 – 9th) “I’m happy with what we did this weekend.
My feeling with the bike has improved a lot and I’m confident that I will score an important result very soon.
I still had some trouble in the slower sections though, mainly because of chattering on the back, but I’m pretty close to finding a good base setup.
I hope to further improve next round”.
Noriyuki Haga (Race 1 – 14th, Race 2 – 13th)“In Race 1 it was really difficult as the rear was moving around all over the place and so I couldn’t open the throttle when I needed to or make up positions as I’d hoped to.
We made some changes for the second race but they didn’t improve my overall feeling with the bike.
It seemed like I needed more traction and I could only push so much.
It was a very difficult weekend.
” Lorenzo Lanzi (Race 1 – 15th, Race 2 – 15th)“It was a strange day, the warm-up in the morning was very strong and we had all the possibilitys to stay close to the fastest group.
In race one I was often hampered by Haga so I lost the chance to fight more and enter the top ten.
In race two things have deteriorating further because the rear grip was absent.
I tried to push all the way but I had absolutely no traction.
Twice the fifteenth position is not the best, especially for the firstrace where I had no problems with the bike.
I would like to thank the team for the sacrifices they are making, I hope to to give them all a good satisfaction in Germany.
”Ruben Xaus (Race 1 -17th, Race 2 – 11th)“To be honest the first race was a disaster.
We had good grip on corner entry but after that I just had no feeling – the bike was just spinning everywhere.
We have tried our best all weekend to come up with a setting which works at this circuit but in the races it simply didn’t happen for us.
I tried as hard as I could but I still finished 17th.
I could have pulled in because the grip levels were so bad, but I am a fighter and I wanted to stay out there and try my best.
For race two we made some big changes to the set-up and it was better.
Unfortunately I lost a lot of positions in the early laps but I was happy with my overall race pace.
We have learnt a lot from race two so I think this will help us in future races.
Tom Sykes (Race 1 – 18th , Race 2 – 14th )“We changed some geometry on the bike set-up between race one and race two and that helped us.
I am struggling on the mid point to the exit of the corners, which is a shame because if we can turn the bike the way we want the Kawasaki engine is really strong.
We have proved that this year in places like Monza.
It is a little bit frustrating to see some other guys up there because I know I can run with them, but it is just one of those things.
Hats off to the team, they keep trying new things.
We improved our race time in race two by nine seconds, which is a positive.
The way we went in race two is definitely a move in the right direction and we need to go further and explore the limits of that.
”Akira Yanagawa (Race 1 – 19th, Race 2 – 19th) “I improved my lap times today but I think I just needed more practice and more time to get used to the tyres and this WSB specification machine.
Overall I am happy because I did not crash and I got some experience with new technical parts and these Pirelli tyres.
It demands a different riding style.
The experience coming back to WSB was enjoyable but I wanted to get better results.
”Broc Parkes (Race 1 – DNF, Race 2 – DNF) “We made some real improvements to the bike this weekend and we qualified for Superpole so it was disappointing to not finish each race.
But the bike is a lot better and the team did some good work.
”