Reiti again in Top Ten with P8 in Race 1
Also the second day of the season finale of the FIM MOTUL Superbike world championship in Qatar was a positive one for Markus Reiterberger. He finished the first race of the weekend as the Top-BMW-pilot and again he finished inside the Top Ten with an eighth place.
A few minor changes on the bike have been done for the third free practice, but they did not go to plan and Reiti lost some time. The adjustments seemed to work for the Superpole session. The 25-years-old was able to ride 1’57-lap-times and was holding sixth position for a while. He finished the qualifying in ninth position, which means that he started into the first race of the weekend form third row on the grid.
Reiti had a really good start and was able to open a gap until the first corner. Whilst riding in fifth position he interconnected gears and that was a mistake, that did cost him some positions. But the young Bavarian bounced back and was able to close the gap to his competitors quite soon again. He finished the first race with an eighth place and he is very pleased with the repeated Top Ten result and about the championship points that he can take home. He hopes now that the adjustments, that he and the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team will do on the BMW S 1000 RR for the two races tomorrow, will bring more progress and that this might give him the possibility to top his result from today once more.
Markus Reiterberger, Superpole - P9, Race 1 - P8: „Its been a while, but the day today was a really good one and I am really satisfied, although it could have been even more. We tried a few things during the third free practice, but it did not work out. That’s why we went back to the set up from yesterday for the Superpole session and then we were able to take another step. I did a 1’57.7 lap time with the race tyre and was holding sixth position. That was a great lap and I had a really good feeling. I also had a great lap with the qualifying tyre, but not the perfect one. But the ninth starting position on the third row of the grid still was good. I had a really good start, until turn one. Then unfortunately I made a mistake there, I interconnected the gears. This happened when I was in fifth position, but this made it easy for some other riders to pass me. I was able to hold the pace until the finish though and it seems that our tyre worked better than the one of the others. I hope for some more improvements tomorrow, especially with the front tyre and that I will be able to take two more good results home with me.“