‘Difficult, but constructive’ Sunday races in Misano for Mahias

Lucas Mahias had his best overall weekend since joining the WorldSBK class in Misano with two 11th place finishes. 

While there were positives in achieving those results for the French rider, Mahias was unable to capitalise on a top ten qualifying position as was the case in Estoril. 

During the two weekends Mahias shadowed fellow Kawasaki rider and six-time series champion Jonathan Rea - helped him to qualify seventh in Misano. 

However, Mahias slowly dropped back in race one and finished 11th, while a crash in the Superpole race cost the six-year WorldSSP rider a chance at a top ten.   

Mahias did fight back from the rear of the grid to claim a second 11th place in race two, but that quickly turned into a ‘what if’ situation, as Mahias was running ninth at the time of his sprint race fall - a position he would have started race two in had he remained there.

When summing up his weekend, Mahias said: "It’s been a difficult Sunday, but an important and constructive one. In warm-up, and in cooler temperatures, the bike was behaving very well. 

"In the Superpole Race I was doing well and fighting for ninth when unfortunately I crashed at turn 6. I’m really disappointed because I was unable to conclude what could have been a good race. 

"In Race 2, I battled to reach the top ten and finished 11th. I improved both my lap times and my feeling with the bike and I’m very pleased about that. 

"I want to thank my team as, after this morning’s crash, they did a great job to sort my bike and are helping me to understand how to exploit the potential of our Ninja"