It was a comeback story for Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, as while it took him some time to blow the dust off after the month-long summer break, he was back to his usual podium pace. His impressive six-race podium streak came to an end on Saturday after the Italian was caught lacking for pace by his rival for P3 in the Riders’ Championship, Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team). The #5 bounced back to beat the Brit and his brother Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) to P3 in both races on Sunday, increasing his insulation to P4 behind him up to 46 points.
Montella took P4 from the Tissot Superpole session, and while he had dropped a place to P5 by the time the red flags were waved on account of Tommy Bridewell’s (Superbikes Advocates) careening bike damaging the air fence, he took P4 back with seven laps to go. He slowly carved out a margin from there, finishing the race half a second ahead of the #22, but two and a half seconds slower than his brother.
He and his Barni Ducati crew went back to the drawing board on Saturday and made an important change to the bike, which paid immediate dividends. The Tissot Superpole Race saw him fall back again to fifth place early on behind daring rookie Alberto Surra (Motocorsa Racing). The sophomore and rookie riders duelled in the early laps, until on Lap 3 the #5 slipped by on the inside with a tidy move on Turn 13. He hung in P4 outside the podium positions around a second behind the #14 until the final lap, when the Brit crashed out on Turn 3, promoting the Italian back onto the rostrum.
“WE CONTINUED TO SCORE POINTS, BUT THE MAIN THING WAS THE GOOD FEELING ON THE BIKE”
To start Race 2, Montella again had a wrestling match with the #67 for P3, dropping a position early on to ride behind Surra. The rookie slipped by him at the Adelaide corner on the opening lap; it wasn’t until Lap 6 that he was able to make a Turn 5 move stick at last to finally overcome the rookie. By Lap 9 his gap was up to more than half a second, and from there he pulled away to seal the round with a second podium. His pair of P3s on Sunday also meant that his Championship picture got even sweeter, up to 46 points ahead of Alex Lowes in P4 after coming into the round leading by only 29.
On his Race 2 and his weekend in general, Montella said: “I was super happy with my feeling. I had good rhythm all race. I started to struggle with my front tyre near the end, but it wasn’t a bad race. I wasn’t too far from Iker, from Nicolo, yes, but not bad at all; not a bad way to start after the summer break. It was a good weekend for us overall. We continued to put in points for the Championship, but the main thing was the good feeling with the bike.”
“I HAD MY BEST RACE EVER”
Montella and his team did well to get to the bottom of their Saturday gremlins as he closed the day on Saturday clearly uncomfortable atop his Ducati Panigale V4R. Their fast response on Sunday morning prevented further loss of points, which, arriving on the heels of the month-long summer break, could have easily spiralled into a larger issue in the Championship picture
On the shift in results from Saturday to Sunday, Montella said: “I struggle, it wasn’t like last round. In Race 1 I finished in P4, not the result we want, but on Sunday we improved the bike. We made a big change before the Superpole Race, and it paid off. We had good pace. I was lucky with the Lowes crashes, but I was there. I did my best, and today I was able to find my rhythm. I think I had my best race ever.”
46 points in hand, he and the rest of the field move on to Cremona next! Tune in on Friday, September 25th with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 70% off!