After a difficult time in qualifying, PSG-1 Kawasaki pairing
Regis Laconi and
Makoto Tamada endured an equally trying race day as the World Superbike Championship season kicked off at the Losail circuit in Qatar.
Former
MotoGP man Tamada has produced the better performance in qualifying, although the Japanese rider still found himself down in 23rd place on the grid for the opening race. Unfortunately he was forced to retire with mechanical problems but bounced back to finish in the points in race two with twelfth place.
“I'm not really satisfied of race one's result where I had to return into the box because of technical problems,” he said. “Race two's result is not too bad. I made a good start and was consistent all the time to take twelfth position.
“I think it's really positive considering these last two days. The team worked a lot and found good solutions which made me able to reach a good feeling with the bike. The next round will be at Phillip Island and I'm confident I can make a good race: I know the track and I think it fits with my style.”
Team-mate Laconi had qualified down in 25th place on the grid but managed to secure a points finish in the opening race in 15th place. Having just missed out on a second points finish of the weekend in race two in 16th, he admitted he wasn't happy with how the opening weekend of the year had panned out.
“Starting from the seventh row is not so simple,” he said. “At the end of this day I reached two valid positions considering that we used as test these two races, working on the bike and testing solutions. Obviously I cannot be satisfied for these results, we have still to improve and make some changes to be competitive but we are proceeding on a good way. We'll see what will happen in Australia.”
