Raffaele de Rosa secured his best WorldSBK result of the season so far in tenth place in Race 2 at Donington, during what was otherwise a tough weekend for the Althea BMW Racing Team. The Italian rider’s Spanish colleague Jordi Torres unfortunately crashed out of Sunday’s race on lap six when fighting for a top ten position.

In 16^th place on lap one, De Rosa started to work his way up the field in the early stages, getting into 12th by lap six. A consistent pace saw him move up into tenth position by the mid-race point, a position he was able to hold to the line, thus scoring his best result of the year to date - since commencing his 2017 campaign at Assen.

Race 1 on Saturday had seen Torres finish ninth, with De Rosa in 15th place. After six rounds of the season, Torres sits ninth in the general standings with 72 points while De Rosa has earned 12 points thus far, lying 20th.

After Race 2, Torres commented, “I noticed during the sighting lap that there was some vibration at the front of the bike. After making a good start, I almost immediately lost ground due to the electronics. Behind (Leon) Camier and (Xavi) Fores, I tried to push and catch up because I felt I had stronger pace than them. Unfortunately though, I crashed at the chicane and couldn’t continue with the race, and that was that. We need to better understand the limit in these conditions, it’s the first time this has happened, while also working on the vibration issue. We hope to do better at Misano.”

De Rosa added, “Conditions were different to Saturday, in that it was hotter. I tried to improve on Saturday’s pace and while there was a certain degree of improvement, I had hoped to do more to be honest. I’m continuing to work to be able to repay the team, as they are all working so hard for me. I hope we can make another step forward at Misano.”