Honda HRC works hard all day and gathers data in Saturday’s Portimão race
Autódromo Internacional do AlgarveThe first race of this second Superbike World Championship round at Portimão brought challenges and opportunities for working and learning for Somkiat Chantra and test rider Jonathan Rea, who placed P18 and P19.
After making constructive use of a third and final practice, in which both riders were able to set their quickest laps of the weekend to that point, the team prepared for the 15-minute Superpole. Having pitted mid-session to fit the qualifying tyre, Rea set a fastest time of 1’40.298, a reference that translated into eighteenth place on the Race 1 grid. Rookie Chantra completed six laps in total, the last of which was his best. A 1’40.325 saw him qualify nineteenth, just a fraction of a second behind Rea around this challenging Portuguese circuit.
The first of the weekend’s 20-lap races ran to schedule in dry, sunny conditions. Lining up for his first ever WorldSBK race, Chantra made a small mistake in the early stages and slipped to the back of the field. Without losing heart, Somkiat began to get into a good rhythm, gradually moving closer to the points zone and climbing to sixteenth. The first Thai rider to compete full-time in World Superbike, Somkiat ultimately crossed the line eighteenth after losing a little ground over the final laps.
Rea got away well when the lights went out, passing a series of riders to move into thirteenth by the end of lap one, but as the race progressed he gradually lost ground. Using the race as an opportunity to collect crucial data and carry out development work, the Rea completed the race in nineteenth place.
The Honda HRC team will be back on track on Sunday for the Tissot Superpole Race and Race 2.
“I’m happy to be back racing and to have made my WorldSBK debut. The result is of course far from the team’s targets, but all things considered, there are some positives we can build on. I made a mistake early on at Turn 5 and lost quite a bit of ground, dropping to the back, but I stayed focused and did my best to recover. I had to use the tyre a lot in the process, and I paid for that towards the end of the race in that the grip dropped, but even so, I’m happy with the consistent pace I was able to maintain for the best part of the race. In terms of bike setup, I think we did a good job. The turning was positive and the base setting is already quite good. We still need work of course, and to adapt the electronics and, as for me, it’s about building feeling and confidence with the bike again after some time away. We have two more races tomorrow, the Superpole Race and Race 2. We’ll stay focused and keep progressing step by step; I’m sure we can and will keep improving.”
“I’m happy to be back racing and to have made my WorldSBK debut. The result is of course far from the team’s targets, but all things considered, there are some positives we can build on. I made a mistake early on at Turn 5 and lost quite a bit of ground, dropping to the back, but I stayed focused and did my best to recover. I had to use the tyre a lot in the process, and I paid for that towards the end of the race in that the grip dropped, but even so, I’m happy with the consistent pace I was able to maintain for the best part of the race. In terms of bike setup, I think we did a good job. The turning was positive and the base setting is already quite good. We still need work of course, and to adapt the electronics and, as for me, it’s about building feeling and confidence with the bike again after some time away. We have two more races tomorrow, the Superpole Race and Race 2. We’ll stay focused and keep progressing step by step; I’m sure we can and will keep improving.”
“Considering the weekend hasn’t been ideal in terms of track time, with very short runs and a crash that didn’t help, we decided to try something different with the setup for the race. It may not have been ideal for the race itself, but in my position our main goal is to find the right direction for the bike’s development. There were some positives, but also some negatives. I made a decent start and had a good track position in the early laps, but physically it was tough and I started to struggle from mid-race on. I haven’t had a pre-season, and I’m not race fit yet, so it was quite a shock to be in a race situation. Still, with one full race under our belt, we now have 20 laps of data to analyse. We’ll look into everything and try to take a step tomorrow, especially in the areas we’re focusing on, so we’ll put our heads together, study the data and aim to improve for the next races.”
“Considering the weekend hasn’t been ideal in terms of track time, with very short runs and a crash that didn’t help, we decided to try something different with the setup for the race. It may not have been ideal for the race itself, but in my position our main goal is to find the right direction for the bike’s development. There were some positives, but also some negatives. I made a decent start and had a good track position in the early laps, but physically it was tough and I started to struggle from mid-race on. I haven’t had a pre-season, and I’m not race fit yet, so it was quite a shock to be in a race situation. Still, with one full race under our belt, we now have 20 laps of data to analyse. We’ll look into everything and try to take a step tomorrow, especially in the areas we’re focusing on, so we’ll put our heads together, study the data and aim to improve for the next races.”
