PFFF…TECHNICAL ISSUE, BYE BYE RACE 1!

PFFF…TECHNICAL ISSUE, BYE BYE RACE 1!

As you can easily learn from the opening title, the first day of racing from the Barcelona circuit turned out to be tough for Team Go Eleven and the rider Philipp Oettl. Despite a good qualifying and an excellent work on the race pace, on the first lap any chance of a result went out to a technical problem.

The Montmelò FP 3s were almost aborted by all the riders, as the rain that fell during the night wet the track, but the water on the track was too little for the rain tyres to provide the right feedback. Philipp preferred to get on the track and make some laps in wet conditions, but without taking any particular risks, since  the session wasn’t useful for the final result of the weekend.

Free Practice 3:
P 1   L. Baz   1.52.973
P 2   A. Bautista   + 1.540
P 3   T. Razgatlioglu   + 1.656

P 6   P. Oettl   + 4.040

The Superpole was held in rather difficult conditions, just before the green light, a light drizzle fell on the Catalan track, without wetting the asphalt. All inside with slicks, Philipp has good sensations and fights for the Top Ten. At the second time attack all the riders improve significantly, the German rookie shows off two excellent first sectors, then in the last two he had a big drop in the rear tyre, so much so that he loses those two tenths that costs him the third row. He conquers the twelfth position, about a second from the top, a good starting position for the races.

Superpole:
P 1   I. Lecuona   1.40.766
P 2   A. Lowes   + 0.023
P 3   J. Rea   + 0.217

P 12   P. Oettl   + 1.262

Race 1 for the Go Eleven team lasts just a few seconds; on the first lap, after an excellent start, Philipp find himself in eighth position at the first corner, then he is forced to abandon the fight due to a technical problem. Once the bike returned to the pits, the DNF was probably caused by debris that entered the chain links, breaking the chain. Race over, the regret is great because today there was a chance to take good points, but fortunately there are still two races tomorrow!

Race 1:
P 1   A. Bautista   34’21.395
P 2   J. Rea   + 8.665
P 3   G. Gerloff   + 9.289

DNF   P. Oettl

Sunday Schedule:
WUP: 09.00 – 09.15
Superpole Race: 11.00
Race 2: 14.00

Philipp Oettl (Rider):
“Qualifying was positive today, I took the first four rows, which was my goal here. The start then was good, but I could have been a bit better in defending my positions in the first corner. For tomorrow I learned a little bit, but today after nine corners our race was over, cause we broke our chain. Maybe it was due to a debris or something similar. That’s a pity because today was really important to understand tyre management in view of tomorrow races. Luckily we will have two race tomorrow, so we just have to wait and give everything in the two next races! Anyway something like this can happen in our sport, we will be ready tomorrow!”

Denis Sacchetti (Team Manager): 
“I don’t believe in bad luck but we certainly can’t say that we are lucky this year. We were very motivated for today’s race, because on this track we knew that tyre drop would have decided the result, so we were prepared and during practice we had very good consumption, lower than the average and in line with the riders who finished in the top 5. Philipp also had a strong start, but …. we couldn’t even finish the first lap. It was a pity, but the beauty of Superbike is that tomorrow we have two more possibilities! ”

SATURDAY PICS: CLICK HERE