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The Pirelli French Round, ninth round of the FIM World Superbike Championship being held this weekend in Nevers Magny-Cours, will likely remain one of the hottest ever raced on the French circuit by the factory derivative riders.
All the Pirelli tyres used by the riders performed extremely well both during the cooler morning sessions and in the extremely hot race conditions. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) chose standard Pirelli solutions to achieve his victory in Race 1, whereas all the WorldSSP riders, including race winner Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) used the standard SCX rear.
In the small 300 championship, Jeffrey Buis (MTM Kawasaki) took his second win of the season after a thrilling duel.
Outstanding performance even with an extremely vast range of temperatures
“In this season, we are racing almost always with extremely high temperatures and even in Magny-Cours, where it is usually a cooler round and sometimes characterised by rain, high heat conditions are expected for the entire weekend. Today, for example, our tyres were used with asphalt temperatures between 25°C in FP3 and over 50°C in the race, so they had to adapt to an extremely wide range. And I must say that they did so respectably, always demonstrating extremely stable and consistent performance in all conditions. The same goes for the standard solutions too, with which Razgatlioğlu won the race, proving the solidity of our range which – let’s not forget – is not made up of prototypes, but tyres which are regularly available on the market for purchase by any rider in the world. In Superpole, the C0004 SCQ development tyre was extremely fast, contributing to the new track record set by Gerloff. We’ll have to see if anyone relies on this solution tomorrow for the 10 laps of the Superpole Race.”
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- Saturday in Magny-Cours kicked off with Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) in the starring role. The American BMW rider was the 70th pole man in Superbike history, putting the USA back on the pole after a 12-year absence. In fact, he took the first pole position of his WorldSBK career, breaking the previous track record set by Jonathan Rea in 2021 by more than two seconds with a time of 1’35.453. Rounding out the first row, respectively in second and third place, were the team Aruba.it Racing – Ducati riders, current championship leader Álvaro Bautista and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. To do their best times in Superpole, all the riders used the C0004 SCQ development solution at the rear and almost everyone went with the standard SC1 at the front. The session was held with asphalt temperatures close to 40°C and air temperatures nearing 30°C.
- In Race 1, delayed a few minutes and reduced to 20 laps due to technical problems, most of the riders chose to go out on the grid with the standard SC1 front and the standard SCX rear. At the front, the only riders who did not use the medium compound were Yamaha riders, Gardner and Baldassarri, as well as Honda riders, Lecuona and Soomer, who preferred starting with the soft SC0. Of the riders on the front two rows, only Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) chose the rear SCX B0800 development solution (SCX-A). With Bautista out of the competition at the beginning of the race, it turned into a head-to-head between Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Toprak Razgatlioğlu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK). On the 15th lap, the Turkish rider managed to gain the upper hand over the Ducati rider, moving into the race lead, where he remained to the end. Behind him under the chequered flag were Rinaldi (second) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) finishing third.
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- Qualifying was held with asphalt temperatures around 35°C and air temperatures nearing 30°C. Nicolò Bulega (Aruba Racing WorldSSP Team) set the new track record with a time of 1’40.074 and took his seventh pole position of the season using the new SC1 front tyre in B1333 specification which Pirelli brought for its début right here in Magny-Cours. Finishing behind him were Frenchman Valentin Debise (GMT94 Yamaha), also doing a time better than the previous track record, whereas another Ducati rider, Raffaele De Rosa (Orelac Racing Verdnatura), started from the third spot on the grid. The latter used the standard SC1 front to do their best times. At the rear, all the riders chose the standard SCX, the softest and highest performance option available to them.
- In Race 1, for the rear, the riders unanimously chose to start with the standard SCX, the softest solution available to them. At the front, most opted for the standard SC1, but there were those, like Nicolò Bulega, who chose the new SC1 development tyre in B1333 specification. The team Aruba rider started well from pole position and led the race from flag to flag, pretty much all alone. The only rider able to stay in his slipstream was Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) who, however, was unable to contend with the Ducati’s speed and had to settle for the second step of the podium. Third place went to hometown rider Valentin Debise.
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