After a long dry spell Jonas Folger ended up in the top-15 again on Saturday afternoon at WorldSBK’s inaugural race at the Circuito de Navarra.
Saturday at the new addition to FIM Superbike World Championship in Navarra, Spain, began with a significant improvement during free practice three for Jonas Folger and his Bonovo Action / MGM Racing Performance Team already in the morning. Folger was almost a second faster than on Friday and he thus ended FP3 in tenth place, less than a second behind the top.
Having already struggled with rising temperatures the day before, the 28-year-old BMW rider still managed to get the best out of the late morning Superpole session, finishing in P14 which put him to the fifth row of the grid for the first race of the weekend in the top-class WSBK field.
At the start and up to the first corner, however, Folger lost a few meters and initially dropped back to 21st position in the second lap. But he gradually gained more confidence and was able to quickly make up ground to 16th place despite the extreme heat. Before the halfway point, he managed to jump into the points and into 14th position, which he was able to defend all the way to the finish line and even get closer to the riders in front of him towards the end of the race.
#94 Jonas FOLGER (Bonovo Action / MGM Racing Performance, BMW M 1000 RR)
Grid position 14th / Race 1: P14
“On the one hand, I am happy to have scored a few points once again. But more could have come out of it today. And that Is what I am annoyed about. Our starting position for the race was not that bad. Unfortunately, I messed up the start because I lost a few places up to the first corners due to a wheelie, and on the second lap I went straight in turn one while trying to overtake another rider. Because of that I dropped down the order even further.”
“After this mishap it was initially difficult to catch up again. But I quickly got into a good rhythm and my lap times were always about the same as those of the riders around P10 until the end. Nevertheless, the race was practically lost after the first lap. Now we have to find out why that happened with the wheelie at the start, because that is very unusual and it was never happened before in any of the start exercises.”
#NavarraWorldSBK - Superpole:
1 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / 1´36.122
2 Scott REDDING / GBR / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R / 1´36.215 +0.093
3 Tom SYKES / GBR / BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW M 1000 RR / 1´36.546 +0.424
14 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / Bonovo Action MGM Racing Performance / BMW M 1000 RR / 1´37.661 +1.539
#NavarraWorldSBK - Race 1 (23 Laps):
1 Scott REDDING / GBR / Aruba.it Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R / 37´50.793
2 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR / +2.519
3 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1 / +5.894
14 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / Bonovo Action MGM Racing Performance / BMW M 1000 RR / +48.470
#WorldSBK Standing:
1 Jonathan REA / GBR / Kawasaki / 286
2 Toprak RAZGATLIOGLU / TUR / Yamaha / 279
3 Scott REDDING / GBR / Ducati / 241
19 #94 Jonas FOLGER / GER / BMW / 10
#NavarraWorldSBK – Time Schedule for Sunday August 22nd (CET):
09:00 - 09:15 Warm-Up
11:00 Superpole-Race (10 Laps - 39.330 km)
14:00 Race 2 (23 Laps - 90.459 km)
