Impressive pace The Millsport Ducati squad showed impressive speed at Snetterton. Securing the team’s best ever qualifying position of third and the first front row for the 1199 Panigale model, Jakub Smrz looked set to fight for podiums come race day. A solid start in the first contest saw ‘Kuba’ get away with the leading pack, but his race only lasted two turns before the Honda of Julien Da Costa lost control at Montreal hairpin in an attempted pass taking both machines out of the running. This made things an uphill struggle for race two, as the #96 bike had to start 11th putting a podium charge out of reach for the Czech rider. A good getaway allowed him to hold position in the early laps, but too much time spent caught up behind the #47 bike of Richard Cooper put paid to his chances of a rostrum result. When Smrz eventually did make it by the Kawasaki of Cooper into tenth there was a gulf of almost five seconds to the pack ahead. Setting personal best lap times to claw back the deficit the Ducati rider did an incredible job to latch onto the back of former MotoGP rider John Hopkins. Unfortunately he ran out of laps before he could take any further positions, taking the chequered flag line eighth. Once again the Millsport Ducati squad has shown great promise and resolve in the face of impossibly bad luck. With Knockhill in Scotland next up on the calendar, the focus will return to that elusive first podium for the Ducati 1199 Panigale in BSB. Jakub Smrz “We’ve had more really bad luck today. There was nothing I could do in race one – I just got taken out – and then this made the job much harder for race two starting back on the fourth row. Without any race data it was tough out there – I got stuck behind another rider and made a few mistakes because I didn’t have any running between free practice this morning and the race at 4:30pm. If I hadn’t got held up I could probably have got past the next two riders. “There are still positives to take though – the team has done a fantastic job with the bike. We had a very different set-up for this weekend and made it work, and qualifying yesterday was amazing to get the first front row for Millsport Ducati. Knockhill is not my favourite circuit and I had a difficult time last year, but the Panigale went well there so I am looking forward to every chance to get out on it.” Team Owner James Murray “It’s always tough when you’re taken out in someone else’s accident, and we could definitely have had a pair of very strong results today. That said, there’s nothing we can do about it and I’m happy with the result in race two. Kuba got caught up behind Cooper for a few too many laps, but his pace was good given that he didn’t have chance to learn anything from race one. The Panigale is strong around Knockhill, so it’s onwards and upwards.” Read the whole post here.
