IRTA
- Jerez
1. Losail
2.
Jerez
3.
Estoril
4.
Shanghai
5. Le
Mans
6. Mugello
7.
Catalunya
8.
Donington
9. Assen
10. Sachsenring
11.
Laguna Seca
12. Brno
13. Misano
14. Indianapolis
15. Motegi
16. Phillip Island
17. Sepang
18. Valencia
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News 20/04/2008
Round 3. Portugal
: Estoril
Seby achieved the `holy trinity´ of
pole position, fastest lap and race win at Estoril.
Seby has taken his first victory of
the season at the Grande Premio de Portugal in which he also scored his
first victory since he switched from Yamaha to Kawasaki last winter.
Having started on pole for the third consecutive round, Seby rode a
brilliant race on board his Kawasaki prototype, battling with big guns
SFW and Guishermo and timing his overtaking manoeuvres on the pair to
perfection. The Portuguese result puts Seby only 5 points behind SFW in
the general standings after 3 rounds into the season.
SFW took the holeshot at a packed first corner, but was swamped by
Lords Of Shadow pair Seby and Guishermo. The trio had a fearsome battle
in the opening lap, until Seby passed both he and Guishermo
definitively in rapid succession at the end of the first lap and then
put on a remarkable display to escape from the Dutch and finish the
race nearly two seconds ahead of SFW.
Having to watch Seby fly away, SFW made his push for second place in
the second lap, overtaking Guishermo and never looking back. He will
now have his sights set on China, where he took victory back in 2006.
Guishermo took the second Lords Of Shadow Kawasaki machine to a rostrum
finish, more than seven seconds behind his Kawasaki colleague Seby. His
podium finish completed by Seby's victory also helped Lords Of Shadow
to lead the team standings.
Behind the rostrum battle, fourth spot saw two crashes in quick
succession from Vouks and Gabi46, leaving LuKe to take the spot onboard
his Kawasaki.
Vouks experienced a string of problems in the race which made him crash
his bike but was able to finish the race in style on fifth position.
Thunder came close to Vouks in sixth position, ahead of Gaz&Slide.
Max and Gabi46 were left fighting for eight place after Gabi46 had a
slight fall at mid race but it was Max who emerged from the fight on
top, eventually beating the Dark Racing Corporation man by just a tenth
of a second. Ronza746 rounded up the top ten, less than a second behind
Gabi46.
Two times World Champion Skider missed the race through injury. He will
be fit and ready to fight in the next race at Shanghai.
Interviews:
Seby Lords Of
Shadow (winner, 16:38.380):
"Thank you everybody, this victory is very important to me. This time
around, I'm really pleased with my performance but I still need to
improve in the next races, I still don't ride at 100%, I believe
there's more to come.
So far I've been very fast but not consistent or very consistent but
not so fast. If I can put those 2 together I'll be at my best and
that's what I aim for in the next races.
During the Estoril race I wasn't very fast compared to practice, I only
did 2 laps under 30s while in practice I could do 7 laps in 29s. The
victory came from consistency, I didn't make any mistakes, not even
small ones so the total time was pretty decent.
I'm happy I was able to do better lap times even with harder tyres than
SFW, I was faster in the first lap, hot lap and also last lap. This is
the kind of pace I need to have in the next races. I've made some
mistakes in tyre choice in the first races but I've learned from those
mistakes and now I took advantage of the experience. As I've read about
Lorenzo in Portugal, this is called "holy trinity" of pole position,
fastest lap and race win. It sounds good to me, I might want more in
the next races.
I have to do good results now in the first half of the season because
in the second part of the season it's usually a bit easier. In this
start of the season it's very hard in each race, SFW is very strong and
I have to push over my limits to stay in touch with him. He has proven
to be a very strong adversary so far and I'm sure it will still be very
hard in the next few races but I'm not yet scared in the standings. The
real fight will be in the second part of the season and I say I'm not
yet worried about the standings because in the past years SFW has made
few mistakes in each mid season. If last year I said it's better to
fight for the title until the last round and lose it rather than to
escape from the start and bore to death in the end, this year I only
aim to win. I've had enough fun races and interesting fights in the
past and I'm sure I'll have plenty of them in the future but at the
moment I need to focus to win the title and only that, despite the
other factors. At the moment I focus on consistency and also being fast
because only that will help me win the title, not only being fast in
few races. I'll have to wait and see if my ability to ride without
mistakes will pay off this year.
The title hunt has begun, I hope this intense fight won't affect
personal relationships and may the best man win. Good luck SFW, you're
going to need it.
Btw too bad Skider missed the race due to injury in his ass. It must
still hurt from Jerez, get some vaseline next time m8."
SFW Team
Yamaha UK-NL (2nd, 16:40.016):
"Congratulations to Seby with his great race and first win of the
season.
GG to Guishermo for taking the podium and putting Lords of Shadow at
the top of team standings.
Also gg to Gaz&Slide for the solid race and a good result.
I'm very happy with my result, I feel that despite not so confident
with the track I've managed to score as much points as I could.
My race was ok, I never had the believes that I could win the race and
I knew this is the track where lots of riders are going to crash. I did
what I had to do, I was putting down some solid lap times and here and
there some small mistakes.
I think that I could go 3-4 sec faster if it was all 100% but I'm sure
that the same thing could be said about Seby.
About my team performance............ well there is a large group of
riders from 7th to 17th place with little difference between them,
Bradders managed to fight hard and finished in the front of the group
on solid 11th place but Dolz had his ass kicked around and finished at
the back of the group on 15th place (but I think that Dolz enjoyed too
much of the misery from Yvos lol and forgot about his own battle).
The NL-UK team had a hard race with Matt suffered technical problems
and wasn't able to finish the race and TT98 couldn't find the speed and
just missed out the points.
Next race I hope for a dry track and I'll fight for the win again."
Guishermo
Lords Of Shadow (3rd, 16:45.633):
"Congratulations Seby, you really deserved this first win of the
season, congratulations to SFW too, you are the only one able to fight
for the win against Seby (or Seby against you lol).
About my podium, the first thing I want to say is that I now understand
why riders in real life say about their team when they get a good
result (as Pedrosa said after Qatar's race, he said that he already
knew why HRCs was a legend team), with so many thanks and so on... I
understood it this weekend. I had practiced no more than 20 minutes in
the week and I arrived to the race with no hopes of doing a good
result, but Seby helped me with the setup and I was able to improve my
lap times half a second per lap, and something more important, I felt
for the first time of the season comfortable with the bike, so it was
very easy to ride the bike in the race despite my lack of practice...
In the race I tried just not to make mistakes and I finished the race
with no problems... The podium tastes really good and I hope to improve
in the next races, thanks Seby for the help! See you next race!"
LuKe Dark
Racing Corporation (4th, 16:47.904):
"Well done Seby for your first win in 2008, great performance and gg to
SFW too, yeh how Vouks say this would be a dream start for you. And big
congrats to Guishermo, if you don't lie that you train only 20 minutes
it's a very, very good result, GG m8!
My Race was not the best one, Jerez was better but I didn't find the
right rhythm in the race, I rode too safely and lost important time.
But I think Estoril is one of the hardest tracks in the calendar, so
it's good that we leave this place and can look forward.
See ya at the next race in Shanghai!"
Vouks Arkos
Connection (5th, 16:55.393):
"GG Seby for the first win of the season, SFW I think we can call your
2008 start as a dream start...... I hope you think the same, GG m8.
Guishermo, I read your post and now I will say a bigger GG too you for
podium m8!
Well gg to all who raced in Estoril and hope that in Shanghai will be
more riders.
See you all there....there...."
Gaz&Slide
Arkos Performance (7th, 16:59.926):
"First, GG Seby: best lap in both
qualifying and race + the 1st win of the season... After just 3 rounds,
we can easily guess that the title will be in Romania or in the
Netherlands 'cos Skider lost a lot with this blank result and I don't
think Guishermo, LuKe, Thunder or Vouks can contest (yet) their
supremacy...
About my race, I wasn't confident at all after the trainings: I was
really slow, I haven't had any feeling in mid-cornering, the engine
wasn't as powerful as I wanted and I wasn't capable to do 3 laps in a
row without crashing... In those conditions, scoring (even small)
points would have been really tough! Fortunately, my team mates Yvos
& Vouks gave me a really good help with the setup of the bike and
despite a lack of time, I arrived to the grid with higher ambitions.
I made a careful start of race with 32s. But lap after lap, I felt more
confident with the bike, so I pushed harder in the second half of the
race. Softs tyres worked at the perfection: I did my best lap (1.31.4)
with 2 laps to go so it was the right choice.
When I crossed the checkered flag, the 7th place was a real surprise
but I won't refuse it. And to finish, a special thanks to the team:
there are no rivalry, hostility, just spirit of mutual aid and it's
always a pleasure to represent the team Arkos."
Bradders Team
Yamaha UK-NL (11th, 17:04.728):
"I was expecting to do low 32s all the way and I did, so I guess I
should be happy with that.
But about half way through I randomly did a 31.5 and that just made me
think I should've been going that pace all the time.
Also I chose the wrong tyres, I could've managed with softer.
Let's see how the result turns out!"
Mircea Lords
Of Shadow II (24th, 17:48.364):
"I'm a little bit disappointed because I don't know why I made a very
bad race and so many mistakes. On this track I've made a lot of
progress since last year when here was my first race. I don't have any
excuse, I was unable to concentrate to do my best, anyway I want to
thank Seby who always helped me with the best setup. Congratulations to
Seby for his first victory of the season, also congratulations to the
podium guys SFW and Guishermo. I hope in China to do a better race, not
like this, and to fight with guys for a better position in the
standings."
darkJr Dark
Racing Junior (27th, 17:51.174):
"All started very good (I only trained 3h because of my 8 to 20 work).
I was doing 1.31.9 in qualifying in practice but in official I've
managed a 32. But in race when all was going so well... the nightmare
started... I fell 3 times because of track bugs and I made a little
mistake that cost me the 16th position! Oh well, 2 rounds, 2 bad races.
My hopes for B title are getting worse, also GG to Dark Racing
Corporation."
Grooveski
Dark Racing Corporation (32nd, 18:37.953):
"Well, first race back after a couple of years off. Just wanted to
thank Seby for hosting.
I'd forgotton how fast the pace could be. Seby came out to play in
qualifying and at one point came past so quick I nearly fell off in
surprise.
The race was a nightmare. Think it was halfway done before I put in a
lap without a visit to the gravel. After that it went ok, on my own at
about the pace I'd been expecting. Managed to get close to my best lap
a couple of times.
See you all in China. Another new track, I better get practicing."
Statistics:
SFW managed to keep his lead in the Rider Standings thanks to a 2nd
place finish in Estoril while Seby's victory helped him to close the
gap to only 5 points to the Dutch Devil. LuKe is 3rd with 54 points, 31
points behind the leader. 6 more points adrift behind the German is
Guishermo with 48 points. Thunder completes the top 5 with 44 points.
Lords Of Shadow have taken the lead in the Team Standings thanks to
Seby's victory and Guishermo's podium finish. Team Yamaha UK-NL is 2nd,
9 points behind LoS after 3 rounds into the season. Dark Racing
Corporation is 3rd, 33 points behind the leading team. Oasics NoGrip
Racing and Arkos Connection complete the top 5.
Yamaha is still first in the Constructors Standings with a total of 85
points but Kawasaki is only 5 points behind the leaders. Suzuki is 3rd,
34 points behind Yamaha while Honda and Ducati complete the top 5.
In the Qualifying Award, Seby extended his advantage to 1.375s over
SFW. Luke has moved up to 3rd at over 3 seconds behind Seby, while
Gabi46 and Thunder complete the top 5.
In the Hot Lap Award the gap is minimal between SFW and Seby, only
0.005s separate the two title rivals. Guishermo is 3rd at over 2
seconds behind the Dutch Devil while LuKe and Gabi46 complete the top 5.
SFW also leads the Total Time Award but Seby has cut down the gap to
only 0.901s in 2nd place. LuKe is 3rd, at more than 25 seconds behind
SFW. Guishermo and Thunder complete the top 5.
Join us in 3 weeks time for the fourth race of the season at Shanghai,
in China.
Report by Seby
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