Dynavolt Triumph’s Niki Tuuli had his sights set higher than a top ten finish in today’s FIM Supersport World Championship race one at the Circuit de Catalunya Barcelona.  

In the morning qualifying session, the Finnish rider had his P3 hot lap cancelled because of the red flag situation and so started the race from twelfth on the fourth row of the grid.  Tuuli launched well but was mugged going into the first corner which he came out of down in P18 which left him with a mountain to climb.  By lap six he was back up to his starting position and battled through to cross the line in tenth, missing out on ninth spot by only three tenths.

Niki Tuuli “I feel really disappointed. I felt good at times this weekend but I can go out and feel quite good and then the next time I go out, I don’t feel so good.  In the race actually I didn’t make a bad start but three times in the first lap some rider pushed me out. I don’t know where I was, P18/19 and I didn’t feel so bad, I tried to recover and improve the position but after three or four laps I started to feel bad with the front feeling.  Maybe I made the wrong tyre choice I don’t know but really I’m disappointed to make this kind of result.  Sorry for the team, I will try to improve myself tomorrow.”

Teammate Harry Truelove made strides in the first race of the weekend after a strange out-lap high-side crash in qualifying saw him start the 18-lap race from thirtieth position.  The young Brit settled into a good rhythm and posted some of his best laps towards the end of the race to finish twenty-fourth at the chequered flag.

Harry Truelove: “A much better race, I felt quite good.  I got quite bogged down at the start of the race and I made a mistake at turn four and then I made some more mistakes in the middle of the race.  After the high side this morning I felt a bit battered so I was a bit stiff and sore but after a while that wore off and I felt like I was faster than the people around me so I just concentrated on getting past.  I’m much happier.”

Dynavolt Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “The red flag in qualifying didn’t help us because Niki was on course to be on the front row and you can’t keep using new tyres because you can only use so many, so we ended up twelfth.  Off the line he was good but into turn one he wasn’t strong and dropped back to 18th and it’s just a big battle from there.  The lap time is there, ok maybe not to win today but to challenge in the top six but you have to fight in the early laps.  We will do what we can from a bike setting point of view and work together to do better tomorrow.  Harry started a long way back but it’s all about building this year with him.  In this race he fought well and overtook and the lap time improved. Although he only finished 24th it was a much-improved performance from Harry and so we will look to make another step with him tomorrow.”

Frustration for Tuuli, Truelove improves again

Niki Tuuli took a hard fought eighth place in race two at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya while Harry Truelove further improved in the 18-lap race.

In spite of a rain shower after morning warm-up, the conditions were perfect for the second FIM Supersport World Championship race of the weekend.

Tuuli managed to hold his position into the first corner at the start and was tenth after the first lap.  After making a couple of well-judged overtakes, the Finn found himself behind Jorge Navarro and couldn’t find a way around him for the next ten laps. With Nicholas Spinelli threatening from behind, Tuuli made his move to cross the line in eighth, two seconds ahead of Navarro.

Niki Tuuli: “I felt like the bike was working well, we improved the handling and how I feel on the front from yesterday to today.  Of course, the result is still not what we want and also I feel at the moment I’m not able to ride as fast as I need to ride. I feel it is possible but I just cannot, I am a little bit too slow. I’m happy because the bike is working well and I can see where I lose, I lose in the exit when we pick up the bike, I can’t stay close. I did everything I can, I gave all that I can today it wasn’t possible to get anything better so that’s it.”

Although his result of twenty-fifth contradicts, Harry Truelove gave a much-improved performance in today’s race two.  Truelove got into the 46s for the first time this weekend and in addition to a general good feeling with the bike, finished over five seconds closer to the front than in yesterday’s race one.

Harry Truelove: “It was a good race; I felt a lot stronger with the bike and within myself. We made good progress on the times and the overall race pace.  I was a little bit frustrated in the middle of the race when I got stuck behind someone. I’d caught them up from a little bit away and they were just too good on the brakes and I couldn’t make the move to get by and because of that I was trying to out brake them all the time and it was making my arm pump up so I got weaker because of it and it made everything more hard work.  Then I lost a load of places with about four laps to go, I think I came out of the final corner and shook the pads loose a bit and then I went into turn one and the lever came back really far and I didn’t manage to get it stopped so I lost some places. Overall I’m really happy, I think I’ve made a good step with the bike and how I’m feeling on it, I just need to stop making mistakes and I’ll be alright.”

Dynavolt Triumph Team Manager Simon Buckmaster: “An improvement from yesterday, we were closer to the front to fight for the win.  The start was much better for Niki but he was having a problem with his hand and he struggled to overtake.  We know we have the pace but we’ve got to make it so that we can fight and overtake and in fact, just qualify better so that we are right there. Overall not the results we wanted, we are still fifth in the championship and we are going to have to work hard to maintain that and move up from there. With Harry, ok the result didn’t show it, but he got into the 46s and now the gap best lap time him to Niki is 1.2s. He rode a lot better and was a lot more consistent, we are building all the time with Harry so we look forward to the next race in Misano which again has been a successful track for us in the past.”