A change in the weather with rain on Saturday afternoon was a spoiler for Jonas Folger, after he managed good improvements during free practice three and in Superpole.
Jonas Folger and his team Bonovo Action / MGM Racing Performance began Saturday morning with encouraging improvements in terms of lap time. The 28-year-old BMW rider was already almost a second faster in FP3 than the day before, climbing up to 14th place overall.
Shortly afterwards in Superpole he was able to make further steps and was another 0.514 seconds faster than in the morning, but the tide turned with the onset of rain before the first main race of the weekend.
Leaving from 18th spot on the starting grid, Folger put in a solid first lap but dropped back to 20th position on the lap two. He then, gradually got used to the conditions and improved his lap times. Towards the end of the race, the Bavarian rider made up another position and crossed the finish line in 19th place after 20 exhausting laps.
#94 Jonas FOLGER (Bonovo Action / MGM Racing Performance, BMW M 1000 RR)
Grid position 18th / Race 1: P19
“It is a pity that the weather has changed this afternoon. It is a pity because we were doing quite well during the dry sessions this morning. The improvements in terms of lap times were good, even if the gap was too big for my taste though. Nevertheless, I had hoped that we could use the rain to our advantage in the race and move up a few positions. But unfortunately, the opposite was the case.”
“I do not know why, but I had very less grip. Maybe it was because we did not use the chassis completely for a rain set-up. We will have to see what the other BMW riders did, but I think that was the main reason why I had no rear grip and lost time with every lap. Now I hope the weather remains dry tomorrow so we can continue as we did in FP3 and Superpole. Maybe we can still manage to score some points.”
#CatalanWorldSBK - Superpole:
1 Tom SYKES / GBR / BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW M 1000 RR / 1´40.408
2 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / 1´40.694 +0.286
3 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / 1´40.921 +0.513
18 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / Bonovo Action MGM Racing Performance / BMW M 1000 RR / 1´42.257 +1.849
#CatalanWorldSBK - Race 1 (20 Laps):
1 Scott REDDING / GBR / Aruba.it - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R / 39´08.002
2 Axel BASSANI / ITA / Motocorsa Racing / Ducati Panigale V4 R / +1.577
3 Michael Ruben RINALDI / ITA / Aruba.it - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R / +2.326
19 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / Bonovo Action MGM Racing Performance / BMW M 1000 RR / +1´27.363
#WorldSBK Standing:
1 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki / 376
2 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / Yamaha / 370
3 Scott REDDING / GBR / Ducati / 323
19 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / BMW / 14
#CatalanWorldSBK - Time Schedule for Sunday September 19th (CET):
09:00 - 09:15 Warm-Up
11:00 Superpole-Race (10 Laps - 46.570 km)
15:15 Race 2 (20 Laps - 93.140 km)
