Round 8 kicks off in perfect weather conditions at Donington Park
The opening day of the WorldSBK UK round kicked off today with ideal, sunny conditions at Donington Park, where the first two free practice sessions of the weekend played out.
Ryuichi Kiyonari spent the two sessions trying some different changes on his bike, setting the sixteenth fastest lap time in the morning and concluding the day in seventeenth position with a best lap time of 1’30.357.
Tomorrow will see Kiyonari back aboard his CBR1000RR, which from this round until the end of the season will be sporting the Honda Racing 60th Anniversary logo, for Free Practice 3 at 09:00 local time followed by the Superpole qualifying session, set to get underway at 11:00, and then Race1 at 14:00.
Ryuichi Kiyonari 23
“Today I was in and out of the garage during the two free practices, trying to best exploit my solid knowledge of this track and better understand the bike’s reactions to several changes that we wanted to implement. Our aim was to gather as much information as possible, to improve rear grip through the fast sections and brake stability through the slow ones. Tomorrow we'll put all this together in the final free practice session and see how it goes”.
Free Practice
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sykes Tom | 66 | GBR | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | BMW | 1'27.733 |
| 2 | Lowes Alex | 22 | GBR | Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team | Yamaha | 0.018 |
| 3 | Razgatlioglu Toprak | 54 | TUR | Turkish Puccetti Racing | Kawasaki | 0.042 |
| 4 | Rea Jonathan | 1 | GBR | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | Kawasaki | 0.079 |
| 5 | Haslam Leon | 91 | GBR | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | Kawasaki | 0.126 |
| 6 | Bautista Alvaro | 19 | SPA | ARUBA Racing - Ducati | Ducati | 0.272 |
| 7 | Cortese Sandro | 11 | GER | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK | Yamaha | 0.502 |
| 8 | Baz Loris | 19 | FRA | Ten Kate Racing - Yamaha | Yamaha | 0.524 |
| 9 | Davies Chaz | 7 | GBR | ARUBA Racing - Ducati | Ducati | 0.681 |
| 10 | Torres Jordi | 81 | SPA | Team Pedercini Racing | Kawasaki | 0.750 |
| 11 | van der Mark Michael | 60 | NDL | Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team | Yamaha | 0.796 |
| 12 | Hickman Peter | 10 | GBR | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | BMW | 0.834 |
| 13 | Melandri Marco | 33 | ITA | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK | Yamaha | 0.898 |
| 14 | Mercado Leandro | 36 | ARG | Orelac Racing VerdNatura | Kawasaki | 1.196 |
| 15 | Rinaldi Michael Ruben | 21 | ITA | BARNI Racing Team | Ducati | 1.272 |
| 16 | Delbianco Alessandro | 52 | ITA | Althea Mie Racing Team | Honda | 2.067 |
| 17 | Kiyonari Ryuichi | 23 | JPN | Moriwaki Althea Honda Team | Honda | 2.624 |
| 18 | Laverty Eugene | 50 | IRE | Team Goeleven | Ducati | 2.676 |
Location Information
Donington Park Circuit Castle Donington, Derby, DE74 2RP, United Kingdom Donington Park
| POLE POSITION | LEFT |
| LENGHT | 4.023 Km |
| CORNERS | 12 |
| RIGHT CORNERS | 7 |
| LEFT CORNERS | 5 |
Records
| Pole Record | 1'26.641 (167,16 Km/h) T.Sykes (Kawasaki ZX-10R, 2017) |
| Race Record | 1'27.166 (166,15 Km/h) J.Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 2019) |
| All Time Record | 1'26.641 (167,16 Km/h) T.Sykes (Kawasaki ZX-10R, 2017) |
| 2019 Race 1 Winner | J.Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) |
| 2019 Superpole Race Winner | J.Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) |
| 2019 Race 2 Winner | J.Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) |
