14/03/09 - Kiyonari just misses Qatar podium
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Ryuichi Kiyonari of the Ten Kate Honda Racing team missed a podium finish by 0.2s in the second of today’s two second round 2009 World Superbike championship races at Losail in Qatar. Both 18-lappers were won by American Ben Spies, with Noriyuki Haga claiming two second places and Max Biaggi two thirds.
Kiyonari’s fourth followed an eighth place finish in race one as his Honda team-mates, Carlos Checa and Jonathan Rea, both claimed a handful of points to put a frustrating weekend behind them.
In race one, Checa took fifth after starting from seventh on the grid, but could do no better than 13th in the second outing after suffering chatter problems in both races.
Jonathan Rea, meanwhile, having been near the top of the timing sheets during practice and regular qualifying, struggled with his grid position of 17th following yesterday’s difficult Superpole event. The 22-year-old battled throughout both of today’s encounters, taking 12th in race one and eighth in race two.
Ryuichi Kiyonari – race one 8th, race two 4th
In race one I had a very bad start and had to push hard at the beginning. After that it was difficult to keep the lap times. We changed the tyre for race two and things felt much better, but, again, I had to push very hard and was maybe a bit too aggressive with the throttle at the beginning, trying to catch the leading group. When I reached Biaggi, I didn’t have enough left to get past him. I hoped he might make a mistake to let me on to the podium, which would have been the best reward for my team who have worked so hard. But it didn’t happen, so I had to accept fourth place.
Carlos Checa – race one 5th, race two 13th
I had quite bad chatter again in race one. We thought we had eliminated this problem after Phillip Island, but it was back and gave me quite bad arm pump. Unfortunately, it was even worse in race two and I also had a bad start which meant I had to try to pass many other riders. With the problems we had, I didn’t really have the confidence to push as hard as I wanted. We’ll work on everything before we get to Valencia and hope for better things there.
Jonathan Rea – race one 12th, race two 8th
Today has been one of mixed emotions – in fact, it’s been quite a weird weekend. We were right up there on Friday and Saturday morning, but went the wrong way and Superpole was not good. So, we went back to Friday’s settings for the races today and I got a pretty good start in the first one, but got bad arm pump. The guys in the Clinica Mobile sorted it out for race two and everything felt much better; but from 17th on the grid, I couldn’t quite catch the leading group so I had quite a lonely race. I had one or two moments with the front, but I’m happy with the way I rode and I’m looking forward to Valencia now.
Ronald ten Kate – team manager
Obviously we have not had the results that we were looking for or that the hard work of the team deserved. Jonathan rode well in the second race and showed that he’s starting to find better race-craft, being new to the class. The highlight of the day was Kiyo’s ride in race two. A podium finish would have been a nice reward for everyone but it wasn’t to be. We will work hard between now and Valencia to get better results there.
2009 World Superbike championship, round two – Losail, Qatar
Results (5.38km, 18 laps)
Race one: 1 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 36’06.304s, 2 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati +1.893s, 3 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +2.168, 4 Shinya Nakano (JPN) Aprilia +12.061, 5 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +12.597, 8 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing +19.306, 12 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +21.994.
Race two: 1 Ben Spies (USA) Yamaha 36’02.126s, 2 Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Ducati +1.274s, 3 Max Biaggi (ITA) Aprilia +1.622, 4 Ryuichi Kiyonari (JPN) Ten Kate Honda Racing +1.845, 8 Jonathan Rea (GBR) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +12.621, 13 Carlos Checa (ESP) Hannspree Ten Kate Honda +15.762.
Championship standings after two of 14 rounds: 1 Haga 85, 2 Spies 75, 3 Max Neukirchner (GER) Suzuki 40, 4 Biaggi 38, 5 Leon Haslam (GBR) Honda 36, 6 Tom Sykes (GBR) Yamaha 32, 8 Rea 30, 13 Kiyonari 21, 14 Checa 21.
Next round: 5 April – Valencia, Spain