WorldSBK – Granado and Soomer conclude a challenging SBK weekend at Most
Competing with riders Eric Granado and Hannes Sommer, the PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team has now completed round eight of the Superbike World Championship at Autodrom Most with results that fell a little short at the end of what was a challenging weekend all round.
Following a wet morning warm-up session, Granado and Soomer were back on slicks for what was a dry Superpole race. Despite cloudy skies, the rain held off for the duration of the ten-lap sprint, with both riders able to make a good start. Granado made up several positions already on lap one to move into fifteenth place. Working hard to lap with consistent pace, the Brazilian ran a strong first half of the race, before losing a little steam in the final stages and crossing the line seventeenth. Competing in his first Superpole sprint race, Soomer was lying nineteenth through the initial laps, a position he in fact held for the duration of this short ten-lapper.
In the early afternoon, the second Superbike race also ran in cloudy but dry conditions. It was not Granado’s day however, the Brazilian unfortunately crashing on lap one, his race over before it even began. The rider suffered some contusions but fortunately no serious injuries. Meanwhile, Soomer moved up three positions in the first five laps to position nineteenth but was unable to make further progress with gaps quickly opening up in front of him during what was a hard-fought race. The Estonian therefore crossed the line nineteenth but gained good SBK experience by completing both of the day’s races, despite a painful hand following a crash on Friday.
The PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team will now take a break before the WorldSSP championship resumes on 8-10 September at the Magny-Cours circuit in France.
Eric Granado
“After yesterday’s work, I had more feeling with the bike for the Superpole. But then today in warm-up we weren’t able to do much due to the wet track. I was able to make a good start anyway and felt closer to the group ahead. I think it was my best result of the year to date actually, so a positive race, although we still need a little more in order to be competitive and reach the points. I was sure that we could score a good result in race 2 as well, but we still need to make some adjustments so that we can have a bike that behaves in a more predictable way, as I’ve had a few crashes with no real warning. Today I felt I was riding well, up with Lecuona on lap one, but then on lap two I unexpectedly went down, and my race ended there, luckily without any consequences for which I want to thank my technical gear Alpinestars and Shark”.
Hannes Soomer
“We finish this weekend in a safe way. After the crash in FP1 my hand was never 100% which made it even more difficult to push the bike to its limit. Thanks to the team and Midori Moriwaki for inviting me to fill in for Hafizh and I wish the team the very best of luck for the next races.”
Full results *Courtesy of Worldsbk.com
