The US Round of the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship has come to a close today at the Laguna Seca Raceway, with Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team’s Stefan Bradl and Jake Gagne finishing in 11th and 14th place respectively, at the end of the second 25-lap WorldSBK encounter of the weekend.

Bradl had an exciting first third of the race: from 17th place on the grid, the 27-year-old German managed to make his way up to 10th after only eight laps. He was then involved in a three-way battle for ninth with Lowes and van der Mark and eventually rode a lonely last part of the race in 11th position all the way up to the chequered flag.

Jake Gagne rode in the top-15 for the majority of the race and well defended his 14th place – despite some rear-grip issues – until two laps to go, when he was passed by Krummenacher. The 23-year-old completed his first World Superbike round with yet another 15th place and one more point in the standings.

World Superbike will now enjoy a five-weekend break before the next round, which takes place at the Lausitzring in Germany on August 18-20.


Stefan Bradl 6 - 11th

For me it was a good race and surely better than yesterday’s. Obviously another 11th place is not what I was looking for, but riding-wise we did improve. The weekend in itself has been challenging because of the changes we had to make, which made it a bit more difficult to find the feeling with the bike. Surely, 17th position on the grid was a bit of a handicap because it didn’t allow me to try and stay with the front guys, but at the beginning I was able to push hard on the front tyre because we made some steps forward in that department. I made a little mistake halfway through the race when I was fighting with Lowes and van der Mark which cost me some tenths and, after some more warnings, I had to settle down a little and ride the bike home in 11th. We seem to have found a direction now so I hope things will improve some more at Lausitzring. I will now go to Japan for the Suzuka 8 Hours and it’ll be interesting to try that Fireblade, so I’m looking forward to this new experience!

Jake Gagne 45 - 15th

At the beginning I was a little disappointed with the result as obviously I would have loved to stay closer to the guys ahead of me, but I learned so much this weekend. The team is amazing, they’re such great and smart guys! I struggled a little bit compared to yesterday’s race, especially with the rear end and that caused some vibration which caused me some problems. I had a couple of big moments and almost crashed, so I’m happy to have brought the bike back to the pit-box in one piece. In any case it’s been a wonderful experience and the fans were absolutely unreal.

Pieter Breddels

Stefan was quite aggressive at the beginning and was able to make some interesting moves early on and stayed with Lowes and van der Mark for a while. He made a tiny mistake but he was pushing very hard and had to let them go. His gap to the winner improved a little compared to yesterday, but we know we have still some work to do. While he will be racing at the 8 Hour, we will work hard and make sure to improve the package before his home race at Lausitzring. We will be rooting for him! Jake had a reasonable start but he soon started to experience some grip issues with the rear which caused some vibration and gave him a hard time. He couldn’t hold on to 14th place but nevertheless he did another great job today. We loved working with him and to get his feedback about the bike. I want to thank him for riding our bike and doing what he did with so many new things coming his way.