Nicolò Bulega
“It was a very good race in Race 2. We improved the bike a lot from the Superpole Race in the morning. I’m happy because this win is important. I know the Championship looks very difficult, but we’ll never give up. Toprak has been strong all season, but we’ve also had a very strong season. We will give Jerez our 200%. The only things I can do now are do my best and put pressure on Toprak.”
Toprak Razgatlioglu
“When I was in second place, I was pushing so hard in every lap trying to catch Bulega that I destroyed my rear tyre. The last 6-7 laps, I started to drop. First, the front tyre started to drop, which I could manage, but when the rear tyre started to drop as well, it became very difficult to handle. I felt the bike chattering a lot, the tyres dropped a lot, and I just decided, ‘ok’, it will be impossible to win, P2 is enough, I just need good points for the Championship. We have some margin now, but we will see in Jerez.”
Alvaro Bautista
“We had a consistent weekend, without mistakes, achieving the maximum possible given our current situation. I am delighted to have contributed to the Team title victory, the fourth since I joined Aruba.It Racing – Ducati. We will try to do better at Jerez”.
Alex Lowes
“I felt quite strong in the Superpole race. It was hectic, with everyone going so fast. But I felt my pace could be a bit faster still, although I was struggling to pass. I tried to pass in T1, but I was a bit wide. I was still believing that if I did a clean turn one I could maybe catch and attack Alvaro by the end of that final lap. You have to try sometimes and it didn’t work out but we came back strong with a good ride in the second race. We have to be happy with our weekend’s work. In Race Two there was a bit of a yo-yo effect with Alvaro. I was really fast in some parts of the track with my bike and he was fast in other parts with his bike. It was difficult to get a rhythm but with about six laps to go I tried again and did a 1’36.4 lap. I was having some slides on the front and I knew if I had got close, and even passed him, he was only going to pass me back. I did not need to have two crashes today. In the last four or five laps I had a gap and I could manage it a little bit. I was happy with how the bike felt.”
Andrea Locatelli
“In the end, we finished with the top five again this afternoon in Race 2 and we had a strong fourth place in the Superpole Race. We were in a group with really good fighting for the podium until the last lap this morning – fighting there is never easy but it was positive and good fun! Race 2 was honestly a bit disappointing, even if P5 was not too bad – with the front tyre it was a struggle from the middle of the race until the end – we destroyed the right side of the tyre which was not the case in Race 1, this can happen sometimes when we try to do the maximum of what we can against our competitors but we always keep fighting until the end. This was the overall result we could do, I tried to do my best during ever session – but, let’s keep working! We have the last round of the season in Jerez next week, so we will try to keep this feeling and confidence with the R1 to fight again. We gained a lot of points, which was another positive point for us in general. During the last couple of rounds it was not so easy, but we keep working and look forward to Jerez!”
Xavi Vierge
“I think we can be quite satisfied with the weekend overall. We were consistently inside the top seven in every session, which shows how competitive we were, even if it felt like we were close to the front but still missing a little bit to really fight for the podium. The Superpole Race was a bit frustrating because we made the wrong tyre choice. We went with the softer option thinking it would work, but as soon as I realised most riders had chosen the race tyre, I knew it would be difficult. I tried to make a strong start and stay with the leaders, but I lost positions at Turn 2 and then destroyed the tyre while pushing to recover. From that point on, it was just about finishing as well as possible. Race 2 was more positive — we were strong again and able to battle in the mix. Unfortunately, in the last five or six laps we struggled again a bit with tyre life, which made it difficult to fight for more, but finishing sixth is still a good result. Overall, I’m really happy with the work we did as a team and it’s always nice to finish the weekend on a strong note. We’ll take the positives and try to build on this momentum going into the final round.”
Remy Gardner
“It was a solid Sunday, and we can head into the season finale in Jerez with confidence. In the sprint race, we were able to fight with the front group and grab sixth place, which gave us a second-row start for Race 2. Then, we gave it everything again to stay close to the leaders. We’re still missing a little something, but we can be satisfied with seventh and the positive momentum going into the last round, where we’ll aim to finish the season strongly.”
Axel Bassani
“The Superpole race was quite good and the feeling was OK. I lost a lot of time in the first two laps with another rider, as it was difficult to overtake him. I lost two seconds to the group ahead. In Race Two the pace was good, and from P4 to P8 was quite similar. So we stayed in pretty much the same positions – but it was a good race.”
Jonathan Rea
“Frustrated with the Superpole race to be honest! In the beginning I was able to get track position up into third place and when Loka came past, I was mindful of his aspirations for third in the championship so I didn’t want to get too involved and it looked like he had the pace to go with Alvaro and beyond. After a few laps though he wasn’t making progress, so I really thought “ok, I need to mount a challenge”. I felt really good with my R1 and we were really strong in Sectors 2 and 3, and I thought if we could be there in the last lap, it could be my chance at the podium. But I went down in Turn 7, just a few degrees over the limit than the previous lap, and that’s the margins we’re racing with. Frustrating for both me and the guys as well, because they’ve put together a good weekend. Then, for the long race, we made a small change to find a little bit more grip but I really struggled with rear traction the whole race and lost a lot more ground with the tyre degradation than yesterday in particular. It was better to bring the bike home, maybe we took the wrong direction with the set-up changes, but you have to look at these things to improve and we’ll learn from that. We take a good feeling to Jerez, knowing that we can fight inside the top five and potentially cap off the year strongly. I want to thank my team for giving everything until the end, especially my Crew Chief Uri, because he’s worked tirelessly to give me a bike that suits my style. Big thanks to everyone at Yamaha and in the team for continuing to push.”
Garrett Gerloff
“All in all, I am not super-happy with the weekend, but we had no crashes, which is good, and we were really close to being inside the top ten in the long races. Those are the two positives that we can take away. We are just missing something, but we will keep trying to find it. It seemed like things were getting better in the middle of the season, and we were getting faster, but now it just seems like it’s a bit of a struggle. We have one more race weekend left for the year, and we will try our best to end the season on a high note.”
Andrea Iannone
“We got off to a good start this morning, and we had a great Superpole Race, climbing from tenth to fifth with some nice moves. Today we sorted out a bit of what we were looking for yesterday, but I still wasn’t completely comfortable on the bike. Unfortunately, I started early in Race 2, even though I didn’t gain anything, but that led to the double long lap. I had fun battling with Toprak and Alvaro in the early laps; we could have had a good race, even though I struggled a lot with the front drop towards the end. We’re moving on to Jerez, where I hope to finish the season on a high!”
Ryan Vickers:
“The weekend at Estoril is over, and it was a fantastic one. Arriving at a new track, one I wasn’t familiar with, and getting 12th, 11th, and 13th place was really exciting. We made a big step forward in the final race, although unfortunately we missed out on the top independent finisher by just one position. We finished the race behind Iannone, who overtook me in the final three laps. It’s a shame we missed him by so little; it would have been nice to go to parc fermé, but overall, I’m really happy with the weekend and can’t wait for the final round.”
Bahattin Sofuoglu
“After the improvements made yesterday, I was very fast in the warm-up this morning, and it was my best warm-up of the season. The progress continued in the sprint race, where I finished fourteenth. Race two was positive, even though we had an issue with the tires, which wore out sooner than expected. I tried to compensate with my riding and the electronics, and we brought home two points. I’m happy with the progress we’ve made and that we can build on it in Jerez, where we must continue on this path to finish my first Superbike championship on a high note.”
Yari Montella
“It was a day of ups and downs. This morning we started very well, with an excellent pace in both the warm-up and the short race. In the Superpole Race, I had a problem downshifting; I went a gear higher than the correct one in the corners. I ran wide and compromised the rest of the race. I came back and took the checkered flag anyway, knowing it wouldn’t have done much in terms of points or positions for Race 2, but it was important to collect data. The pace, in the end, was excellent, top 10. I started the long race confidently, but we suffered more than I expected. The conditions changed; everyone improved their times compared to this morning, but we improved them twice as much as the others. We missed something and we need to analyze the data.”
Tito Rabat
“We were hoping for more today. In the sprint race we had some technical problems that forced me to stop. We analysed the issue, and were confident that Race 2 would go better, but unfortunately a similar problem arose, which made it hard for me to ride. I did my best and finished the race, and we are clear as to the issue which is good news, so now we need to focus on finding a solution for the Jerez round.”
Michael Rinaldi
“It was a weekend to forget, first and foremost because of my physical problems, which forced me to stay in the hospital yesterday and miss Race 1. Today I was unlucky in the Superpole Race when a contact with another rider caused me to lose my right knee slider and became impossible to ride. My desire for revenge betrayed me in Race 2, when I overdid it in a corner and crashed, fortunately without any physical consequences. I’m sorry for the team and our supporters, and I hope to do much better in the final round in Jerez.”
Iker Lecuona
“I’m honestly happy overall, even despite the crash, because it was the first one of the weekend that was completely my mistake. I was struggling a lot with arm strength — already in the Superpole Race the last two or three laps were difficult because I didn’t have the power to stop the bike properly, so we missed that top-nine spot that would have helped us for the long race. In Race 2, from lap four or five, I started braking with two fingers instead of one to try to push harder and build confidence, but that made it more difficult to manage everything. Even so, I was able to overtake several riders, had a really good pace and had already caught Van der Mark to fight for P10. Unfortunately, when I braked into Turn 7, I locked the front and couldn’t react quickly enough to save it. In the end, I prefer to look at the positives — I was fast, competitive, and pushing for my target, so we’ll keep working with the same focus for the final round.”
