Torres and Althea BMW play catch-up in SBK race 1 at Buriram

The third race of the 2017 Superbike World Championship took place today at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand and for Torres and the Althea BMW Racing team it proved to be a test of strength, as they battled on despite some inconveniences and bad luck. Torres crossed the line in seventh place, while Reiterberger closed in fourteenth position. Superpole2: today’s Superpole took place without the use of the qualifying tyre, withdrawn by Pirelli due to damage caused to some tyres during transportation of the supply. Unfortunately, a crash for Torres when there were still ten minutes to go prevented the Spaniard from continuing the session, meaning that he qualified for the race in tenth position (1’34.252), ahead of his team-mate Reiti, twelfth (1’34.807). SBK - Race 1: The Althea BMW team worked hard to get Torres’ S 1000 RR ready in time for the race after the earlier crash. Jordi got away well, maintaining tenth position through the opening laps. Closing in on Savadori, the Spaniard passed him on lap four. Thanks to his strong pace, he was soon able to reach Forés, moving into eighth place on lap nine. Jordi then worked hard to reduce the gap to Laverty ahead of him, finally crossing the line in seventh place and scoring some important championship points in the progress. Reiti lost a lot of ground in the opening stages when another rider almost crashed ahead of him, forcing him wide and causing him to drop down to seventeenth place. The German was able to recover two positions in the first half of the race, but the time lost in the early laps prevented him from doing more today. Markus thus closed today’s race in fourteenth place.

“We did well in the morning’s free practice, but then in Superpole the bike switched off and as a result I lost almost the entire session. I was unable to complete a fast lap and therefore started the race from tenth position. Luckily, my technicians are fantastic and were able to sort my bike just in time. In the race, I started to get into a rhythm, immediately passing Camier, then Savadori. I wanted to do more in the later stages but I didn’t have the pace to go any further. It’s OK, it was a tough race and seventh is not bad, though I’d like to do more tomorrow, starting from fourth on the grid.”  “We made some changes in free practice, with the aim of improving from session to session, but unfortunately we didn’t get what we wanted, neither did we improve in Superpole. Overall, my race pace was not so bad. The problem was that I was pushed wide early on when another ride nearly crashed in front of me, and I fell back to 17th place which was bad. From lap four to the end, my pace was fairly good but I had lost too much ground in the opening stages. I hope we can take a step for tomorrow’s race and do better in the first laps.”