Two difficult races for Giugliano at Silverstone

The ninth round of the World Superbike championship took place this weekend at the Silverstone circuit. Davide Giugliano, still suffering pain in his right foot after yesterday’s crash during Superpole, lined up on the third row of today’s grid in ninth position. There were grey and cloudy skies this morning at the Silverstone circuit. Just prior to the start of the race it started to rain and race direction decided to delay the start and allow riders to make two sighting laps in order to evaluate conditions and decide what tyres to use. As a result the race was reduced by a lap, from 18 to 17. Giugliano’s race lasted only one lap however. During the course of the opening lap he was unable to get the bike in gear and when he did eventually succeed, the chain had suffered damage as a result. Davide was forced to return to the garage where his technicians repaired the bike, allowing him to rejoin. With the race already compromised by this point, Giugliano only completed a few laps just to check that the bike was in fact ready for the second race.

In race two Giugliano did not make the fastest start and was lapping in around twelfth place in the initial stages. Unfortunately, instead of making up lost ground Davide continued to fall back and was unable to find a pace that would allow him to catch those ahead of him. Lapping with fairly high lap times compared to what he had done in qualifying, Giugliano concluded the race in sixteenth position, which became fifteenth when Haslam was unable to finish due to a crash on the penultimate lap. The next World Superbike round will take place in Germany at the Nurburgring on September 1st.

Davide Giugliano : “In race one we were very unlucky. During lap one I had trouble shifting and then, in getting it into gear the chain got damaged, which meant I had to go back to the pits. My race finished there and I went back out on track only to check that we’d resolved the problem. In race two I unfortunately didn’t get off to a good start but right from the first laps I was having trouble riding my bike. The rear tyre slid around a lot and I couldn’t up my pace. I nevertheless wanted to finish the race out of respect for my team and the work they’d put in but fifteenth position is clearly not a result befitting of me and my team and so I can’t wait to get on track at Nurburgring after the summer break to demonstrate our real potential.”

Genesio Bevilacqua was not present at Silverstone due to other work commitments but he was in constant contact with the team and gave this statement: “Two difficult races, considering also what happened on Saturday. I expected our rider to react in a more consistent manner but evidently Davide must have had issues that I will evaluate with my technicians as soon as possible. I’m not pleased with these results of course because we have a top-level bike, identical to the factory machines and with which we want to finish in the top positions every time. Unfortunately races can be like that, but recently we have had a negative run of results on which our team must reflect, with a view to the rest of the championship and the future.”