Buriram. On race Sunday at the ‘Chang International Circuit’
in Buriram, Thailand, the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team continued to
collect valuable data with the brand new BMW S 1000 RR. For the two
riders, Tom Sykes (GBR) and Markus Reiterberger (GER), warm-up,
Superpole Race and race two were on the FIM Superbike World
Championship (WorldSBK) programme. They completed more kilometres
under race conditions to gain further experience for the development
of the new Superbike. In the end, Reiterberger finished race two in
eleventh place, while Sykes had to retire due to a technical problem.
In the Superpole race on early Sunday afternoon Sykes took the
flag in tenth position while Reiterberger finished 14th.
Sykes was therefore tenth on the grid for race two, held in the late
afternoon local time, while Reiterberger started from 12th
place. Both BMW riders made up positions at the start. As the race
went on, Sykes was in ninth place but then experienced issues with the
clutch and had to stop his bike at the side of the track. Reiterberger
collected five more world championship points by finishing in
11th position.
The BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team and WorldSBK will now return to
Europe. The third round of the season will be held from 5th
to 7th April at MotorLand Aragón near Alcañiz (ESP).
Quotes after race two at Buriram.
Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “The
grid positions after the Superpole race met our expectations and were
okay. The second main race, however, was rather disappointing for us,
with Tom retiring and Markus having quite a gap to the front. Tom had
to stop due to a slipping clutch. We will now analyse in detail what
caused it. Markus was able to collect a few points by finishing
11th. Now we need to take advantage of the short break to
complete the next updates at the factory, taking the next steps on our
way forward.”
Shaun Muir, Team Principal BMW Motorrad WorldSBK
Team: “Tom had a great Superpole race. Again, we were
focusing on the top ten positions. He got a really good start, got
pushed wide a little bit on turn one but worked his way through. By
the time he was in turn three, he was in a strong position. He settled
in with a good routine and got a strong finish. Tom’s main race
unfortunately suddenly came to a close. He had settled into a good
rhythm, the track was just coming to him, the lap times had started to
drop but then unfortunately he had a technical issue that dropped him
out. Markus really struggled today finding a comfortable bike, which
has been a problem all weekend. He could not find a good feeling with
the chassis, especially with the front end. Until we can give him that
real comfortable feel he’s struggling to really push to close the gap
towards the front guys. We have to be happy still overall for the
weekend in Buriram – disappointing with the DNF for Tom – but I think
we still go away with a lot of positives and are looking forward to Aragón.”
Tom Sykes: “After a couple of laps I felt that
something was wrong. It’s a bit frustrating because we had made a
change to the bike and it really felt good. On the positive side I’m
really surprised to come here to this race circuit and to be inside
the top ten with our disadvantage on the straight, so to be inside the
top ten is really promising in my opinion. Honestly, in the approach
and entry of many corners, the chassis and the set-up on the BMW S
1000 RR is really an advantage compared to our competition so overall
there are quite a lot of positives for me to take. The negative is
obviously, as we saw at Phillip Island, that we are giving a lot away
on the straights but hopefully that won’t be a problem anymore in the
not so distant future.”
Markus Reiterberger: “In the Superpole race, I had a
great start and was right behind Tom after the first corner. I also
had nice battles on the opening laps, but then another rider almost
got me off the bike and I had to go straight. As a result, I lost six
positions. When I then made a mistake, the race was more or less over
for me. In the main race I struggled with the issue that has been
causing us difficulties all weekend: that I could not delay the bike
well enough and I had no feeling for the front of the bike. We tried
to get a grip on that and improved things step by step, but
unfortunately it just was not enough over the distance, especially
when it got hotter and the grip level went down. Our gap towards the
front mainly results from the time lost on the straights, but I’m not
worried about that. Here I trust the guys in the factory that we get
more power, and then the results will be better as well. But I have to
continue to work on getting confidence in the front wheel when turning
in and in the corners.”