The Pata Honda team is heading for this weekend’s (3-5 October) final European round of the 2014 World Superbike championship season at Magny-Cours in France.
Jonathan Rea, currently sitting in third place in the championship standings, is looking forward to battling with his rivals once more on his Pata Honda CBR1000RR machine and targeting an eighth rostrum finish of the 2014 season having twice visited the Magny-Cours podium in the past.
The 27-year-old British rider is 36 points behind second-placed Sylvain Guintoli and, with the final round scheduled to take place at Losail in Qatar on 2 November, both riders still have a mathematical chance to overhaul leader Tom Sykes, who is a further 31 points ahead of Guintoli.
Similarly, Rea’s Pata Honda team-mate Leon Haslam is intent on maintaining his challenge for improved results. The 31-year-old currently lies in tenth place in the points table but has shown steady progress in the last five races with a string of consistent top eight finishes.
Haslam, who has not enjoyed podium champagne at Magny-Cours since the 2010 season, will be targeting a stronger qualifying performance at the French circuit this weekend in order to mount a sustained challenge for further podium places.
The 4.411km Magny-Cours circuit lies in central France, approximately 260km south of the capital Paris. The scene of James Toseland’s World Superbike championship title victory for Honda in 2007, it features 20 corners - nine lefts and eleven rights - with one of the tightest hairpins (Turn 5) seen on any world championship circuit.
Magny-Cours World Superbike event schedule (local times):
Friday 3 October
11.45-12.30 Free Practice 1
15.30-16.15 Free Practice 2
Saturday 4 October
09.45-10.30 Free Practice 3
12.30-13.00 Free Practice 4
15.00-15.15 Superpole 1
15.25-15.40 Superpole 2
Sunday 5 October
08.40-08.55 Warm-up
10.30 Race 1 (21 laps, 92.631km)
13.10 Race 2 (21 laps, 92.631km)
Jonathan Rea
I’m really excited to be going back to Magny-Cours – I enjoy the circuit layout a lot and its fast direction changes seem to suit our package really well. We’ve also had some good results there in the past. To be honest, I’m just looking forward to riding the bike again; these long gaps between the last few races of the season are not good or helpful for maintaining any kind of rhythm. I’ve been doing a lot of training on my CRF450R motocrosser, just to keep my levels of concentration as high as possible. Last time out in Jerez we had some really good pace at the end of the races – probably among the strongest. Now we need to work on getting that pace earlier in the race to allow us to challenge for podiums and wins. But we’ll be starting in Magny-Cours with what we know and conc entrate through the weekend on getting the best possible set-up for Sunday.
Leon Haslam
Yeah, I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike at Magny-Cours this weekend. Another month off since the last race has not been ideal in terms of keeping recent momentum going but it is what is it. I like the circuit and I’ve had some pretty good results there in the past, even though last year’s races were not great. The weather can always play its part at Magny-Cours as well – it might suit us if it’s wet but, either way, I’m looking forward to getting out there again.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
Magny-Cours has not been a bad circuit for us in the past so we plan to go into full-attack mode that will allow Jonathan to retain his third place in the standings and even to improve his position, if possible. His recent results have been good for his confidence so we’re looking forward to the weekend. We’ll keep pushing with Leon, too, and try our best to give him a setting with which he is comfortable and can target the podium in Sunday’s two races.
