Kenan started the practice on Friday by leading the FP session in good weather conditions and was well set up for dry conditions. On Saturday, the track was wet due to heavy rain and Qualifying was very challenging. Kenan was leading till the last minute before Mark got a good laps at the end and took pole position which left Kenan in P2 for the race start. Sunday’s weather was perfect and it was a dry race. Kenan got a very good start and took the lead in the first corner. He lead the race for almost 9 laps and suddenly had a problem with some track debris getting stuck for a moment between the front wheel and the lower fairing of the bike which cost him few seconds and fell behind to 6th position. He then fought hard and finished the race in 4th position just 0.2 seconds behind Kev Coghlan who finished 3rd. He was in a good position to win the race yet again, but it just wasn’t to be.
Fabien had a good weekend, improving well in Friday practice by finishing among the Top 3 Evo bikes. On Saturday, due to a wet qualifying session, he could not find a perfect lap and had to start the race from the 22nd position. But then, Sunday’s weather conditions were good and he was all set for a dry race. Finally, when the Race 1 began, Fabien did a great job in and worked his way up from 22nd all the way till 12th position by end of the race and finished up 3rd among the Evo bikes and scored 4 points to move up in the overall championship. In Race 2, under dry conditions, Fabien tried his best and managed to finish in 18th position starting from 22nd. He had a rear tyre issue in this Race. He is working hard race by race to improve his Evo bike. The team is now looking ahead to the next race which takes place on the 8th of June at Sepang, Malaysia and is confident they can get back to their winning ways there.
Kenan Sofuoglu – Rider – World Supersport Championship
“It was another unfortunate weekend for me and I was not happy with the result as I could have finished 1st instead of 4th in the race. I was comfortable all weekend in practice and qualifying but in the race, due to the debris problem, I had to lose some time in middle of the race and lost some positions while leading the race. If we finished on top, it could have been a big boost for me and the team and we could have been in good points in the championship, but it did not go according to plan. So we need to work harder now and I hope we do not have any more problems from the bike in the future and we will keep trying our best as always. I have raced in Sepang before at Moto 2 level and I’m excited and look forward to racing there in 2 weeks and have a good result.”
Fabien Foret – Rider – World Superbike Evo Championship
“This weekend was good for me if not perfect. After gaining confidence on Friday, I could not improve much on Saturday as the weather was bad and raining which got us a bad position in qualifying, starting from the 22nd spot. I was finding a good set up in warm up on Sunday and was ready for the dry race and we worked very hard to finish in 12th position which also got us some points for the championship and also finished top 3 in Evo. In Race 2, we gave our best shot, but only managed to finished 18th. But, overall I feel okay with the race weekend and we hope to improve our bike race by race and do the best we can to be the top Evo. I am confident that things will improve at Sepang and that I will be back up there competing for the top 3 in the SBK Evo title.”
