It was a picture perfect Sunday for Nicolò Bulega (Aruba it Racing – Ducati) in the French round of the FIM World Superbike Championship, where the Ducati rider took victory in both the Superpole Race and in Race 2, taking full advantage of the SC1 front – SCQ rear combination, both standard tyres, to take the short race in the morning. He then replicated his success, winning the long race in the afternoon by a wide margin – more than two seconds – using the same front tyre combined with the standard SCX at the rear.
Niki Tuuli (EAB Racing Team – Ducati) and Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team – Ducati) divided the WorldSSP spoils of the day, the former winning Race 1, which was held today after being rained out yesterday, and the latter winning Race 2. In both cases, the combination of the SC1 at the front with the SCX at the rear proved to be the winning choice.
All of the options adapted well even in difficult conditions
“The French round was heavily conditioned by the unstable weather, which prevented the teams from making any optimum plans for the weekend. In uncertain conditions like today, the difference was made by the experience of the teams and the riders’ skills on an extremely difficult track. Our job was to support them as best as possible, providing various options – all valid – and we achieved that goal. With such little time to test in similar conditions, it is understandable that most of them leaned toward better known solutions for the race, but the new SCX development tyre for Superbike still garnered one third of the preferences on the grid for Race 2 and the data collected throughout the weekend on the development specifications is a valuable bounty of experience for us, as well as for the mechanics and the riders. Both the slicks and the rain tyres merit being brought to other circuits to be tested in different conditions as well and to validate the information gathered. We are also extremely satisfied with WorldSSP. After the change of programme yesterday, teams and riders did a great job concentrating all their efforts in just one day. The SC1 front – SCX rear combination proved to be a valid choice for Race 1, held on rather cold and damp asphalt, a sign that our slicks can provide outstanding performance in an extremely wide range of use. The same combination also allowed for an improvement in the overall duration of Race 2 compared with last year, as well as finishing out the weekend with two broken lap records.”
WorldSBK
· The Superpole Race was held on a dry track with asphalt temperatures around 25°C. Almost all the riders went with the standard SC1 for the front, whereas Scott Redding on BMW, Michael Ruben Rinaldi on Ducati, and the two Honda riders, Tarran Mackenzie and Ivo Lopes, opted instead for the SC1 development solution in D0715 specification. At the rear, the grid was also almost unanimous in choosing the SCQ. Only the two Kawasaki riders, Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani, selected the SCX development tyre in D0820 specification and Tito Rabat (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) preferred the standard SCX.
· The SC1 front – SCX rear combination, both standard tyres, was the choice for the top three Race 2 finishers: Nicolò Bulega (Aruba it Racing – Ducati), Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team – Ducati), and Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW), also shared by most of the other riders on the grid. Among the other 17, six went with the new SCX development tyre in D0820 specification for the rear, and four chose the SC1 development tyre in D0715 specification for the front.
WorldSSP
· Tyre choice for Race 1 was up in the air until the last minute. The three riders who finished on the podium gambled on slicks and, for the front, they relied on the standard SC1. Race winner Niki Tuuli (EAB Racing Team – Ducati) combined it with the SCX at the rear, whereas the second and third-place finishers, respectively Federico Caricasulo (Motozoo ME AIR Racing – MV Agusta) and Glenn van Straalen (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing), opted for the SC0.
· Race 2 started in dry conditions with asphalt temperatures around 35°C. All the riders chose the SC1 for the front, whereas for the rear, about two thirds preferred the SCX, with the others opting for the SC0. All of the options available for WorldSSP are standard solutions. With the same number of laps as 2023, Race 2 this year was one and a half seconds faster, with an average improvement per lap of almost one tenth.
· Stefano Manzi (Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) did a time of 1:40,027 on the seventh lap, which breaks the previous race lap record by almost half a second. Nevertheless, it was not better than the time of 1:39,375 which Adrian Huertas (Aruba it Racing WorldSSP Team – Ducati) did on Friday in qualifying which, at the end of the weekend, stands as the new all-time lap record for the circuit.