Imola. Supersport race

MV Agusia Reparto Corse - YAKHNICH MOTORSPORT

Supersport

Italy, Imola

4 round, race

9 – 11 May 2014

The 4th round of the Superbike World Championship ended. Despite the brilliant start and the first pole in this season the team MV Agusia Reparto Corse - YAKHNICH MOTORSPORT earned only one point. Inspired by the Saturday's victory Jules Cluzel and his staff couldn't even imagine that the race would be so hard. But this is a race and everything can happen. And its happened with Cluzel. Starting from the first place Jules could keep leading position during 6 laps. But on the 7th lap in the 7th turn he went to the gravel and could return only on the 8th place. During the rest laps he went to gravel several times but continued to fight hard for points. In this incredible race full of crashes and technical problems the French rider of the Russian team finished only fifteen. For Vladimir Leonov the race was also not very good. As a result of Saturday qualification Vladimir got the 9th place on the starting grid but on the first lap he has lost all positions. Like his teammate Vladimir tried to finish but repeatedly leaving the track he decided to return to the box.

Jules Cluzel: «My goal for today was to make a good start and stay in leaders as we always lose positions in the start. In the beginning it was not so bad although I can’t say I feel comfortable. Now I can’t say the reason but to the 7 lap my rear wheel completely destroyed. I tried to be calm and just finished the race”.

Vladimir Leonov: «It's terrible. I'm very upset! We've just found the right direction. Before warm up we tried the new clutch and it seemed to be better. Already in the beggining of the race I understood I couldn't  use engine brake. This is not just the clutch problem, it's a number of reasons. I fought till the end but the bike was unpredictable on brakings so I went into the box to avoid the risk of the crash.»