Rain brings mixed results for Honda Racing UK at Donington Park
Donington Park GPThe Honda Racing UK team have experienced a mixed day at Donington Park for the tenth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, with wet weather conditions hampering progress.
The Honda Racing UK team have experienced a mixed day at Donington Park for the tenth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, with wet weather conditions hampering progress. Pre-empting a poor and potentially disruptive weather forecast, the schedule for today was altered bringing both the opening races for Superbike and the Pirelli National Superstock Championship forward by a few hours.
This morning Glenn Irwin set the third fastest qualifying lap in Q2 aboard the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP in what was tricky conditions. With the rain coming down for the opening race of the weekend, Glenn had a good start and was running in third place until lap three where he crashed out, unhurt, at Fogarty Esses.
Teammates Ryo Mizuno and Takumi Takahashi both made their race debuts on the GP layout at Donington Park, but sadly for Ryo after setting the ninth fastest time in the morning's practice, he also crashed out of the running, unhurt, on the 12th lap, where he was sitting 12th. The 16-lap race saw 15 finishers cross the line out of 26 riders on the grid, and coming home 13th was Takumi who added further points to his BSB tally.
Honda Racing UK's Superstock rider, Tom Neave qualified seventh ahead of his 12-lap race and with the rain firmly set for the day, it wasn't going to be an easy race. Wanting to protect his championship lead as much as possible, Tom had a cautious run not wanting to do anything that might have caused him to crash out. Coming home 11th, Tom maintains his championship lead by 14 points, ahead of title rival Alex Olsen.
The Honda Racing UK team will be back in action tomorrow (Sunday 3 October) for two more Superbike races, as well as the second Superstock race of the weekend.
In the race I felt good, the track was like ice and we struggled with edge grip. The crash was frustrating as I went into the corner slower than the lap before and there was no warning. I was nervous with my shoulder, physically I knew it would be easier, but it also would have been easy to crash in those conditions. Apologies to the team for the work this evening, the Fireblade has been working well in both conditions this weekend and that's the main thing.
I had a good feeling from FP3 and was attacking in Q1, marking my best time, when suddenly I was hit by a rider who was going slow and I couldn't avoid him, crashing and ending the session. I'm looking forward to the two races tomorrow because Donington Park is one of my favourite circuits and I've been riding very well here this week. I'm not sure what the weather will be like, but I'll do my best in all conditions and try to finish in the top 10!
In qualifying I was able to ride in Q2 but I crashed on the first lap and I am sorry to my team. I was able to finish the race and get some points, but I couldn't adapt to the conditions and I didn't ride well, so I will try to make up for it in the two races tomorrow.
The worst thing I could have done was watch the Superbike race before ours, because everyone was crashing and it planted a seed in my head, and the objective then was just to purely finish. Obviously we wanted results, but in conditions like that there's so much to lose and that played a huge part in my race. I wasn't prepared to push and I was having so many slides, and all I wanted to do was to bring her home and that's what I did. Today was about damage limitation and hopefully tomorrow we can have a dry race where I know I can be strong.