The first day of WorldSBK action at the Chang International Circuit has drawn to a close, with the Red Bull Honda World Superbike duo of Stefan Bradl and Nicky Hayden 12th and 13th respectiely in the combined times of today’s two free practice sessions at the Thai circuit. Both riders will therefore have to try and make their way through Superpole 1 in order to battle for a spot in the first four rows of the grid for race one.
Both riders spent the entirety of their track-time evaluating the new solutions and settings developed for their Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 machines by the team and its technical partners after the opening round. With 45 and 40 laps completed during the day, Bradl and Hayden have given the team a significant amount of information to work with ahead of tomorrow.
Superpole 1 at the Chang International Circuit begins at 13:30 local time (GMT +7), with race one scheduled to get underway at 16:00.
Stefan Bradl 6
We were expecting a bit more of an improvement this morning but in the afternoon we did make a step in the right direction on many areas that were affecting our performance in Australia, such as engine brake but also traction, spinning and wheelie control. Still, we are trying to put everything together so we need to keep working in this same direction but we indeed found some improvement. We are still chasing and we don’t have the right tools to be up there with the fastest riders, but we are moving upwards.
Nicky Hayden 69
Today we had some inconsistency with the bike on corner entry: because of that it was hard for me to try and find the limit as well as pushing for a competitive time. This prevented me from finding the right feeling with the bike. However, we know where the problem is, so it’s a matter of keep working hard and come back stronger tomorrow.
Pieter Breddels
We made quite a number of changes from Phillip Island to here: with Stefan they worked out quite well and we were able to make some steps forwards. We’re still 12th and 13th after today, but these positions do not reflect our potential. He is steadily building a bit of confidence with the bike and with some more tweaks this will carry over into tomorrow. The Fireblade is giving him a consistent response and there’s a clearer direction to follow with the setup. Nicky had more of a difficult day and different issues to address, but we are investigating and analysing the data in order to come up with a plan for tomorrow.
