The Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team narrowly missed out on a points-scoring finish in Race One at Imola, as Jake Gagne came home in sixteenth place, while Jason O’Halloran – brought into the team to replace Leon Camier this weekend – suffered misfortune as a crash on lap two resulted in the Australian rider fracturing his right leg.
Weather conditions were again warm and sunny at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari today, with the team continuing to work on improving bike settings ahead of the Superpole qualifying sessions and Race 1. In qualifying, O’Halloran and Gagne set the eighth and ninth quickest times in Superpole 1 which resulted in them lining up in P18 and P19 on the grid respectively for Race 1.
Both riders got a good start and were able to make up positions in the opening lap, however on the second lap O’Halloran suffered a crash at Turn 5 at the entry to the Villeneuve Chicane. The incident left O’Halloran with a fracture to his lower right leg and he was transported to Imola Hospital for further treatment.
Meanwhile Gagne, was able to maintain a constant pace throughout the race and in the middle stages was involved in a six-way battle for a top twelve position. However, in the final laps Gagne lost touch with the group in front and he crossed the finish line in P16 and just outside the points in his first ever race at the circuit.
Gagne will have another chance to try and add to his points total in Race 2 at 1300 local time (GMT +2) tomorrow.
Jake Gagne 45
Qualifying didn't really go the way we wanted to this morning, I made it tough for us by missing FP3 yesterday when I went down so that meant we started Race 1 a bit further back then I hoped. The race itself though went quite well, I got a good start and for the middle part of the race I had a strong pace, felt comfortable and was in the group of riders challenging for points. I faded just in the last couple of laps and obviously finishing in sixteenth is not where we want to be but for my first race here I was able to learn a lot over those nineteen laps. Now we can try some things with our setting in Warm Up and I'm sure we'll have a better race tomorrow.
Kervin Bos - Team Manager
Today was a tough day for us but being in WorldSBK means we get a chance tomorrow in Race 2 to turn things around. For Jake, he was able to learn a lot in his first race here at Imola and now he and the team have some ideas to help him improve his pace, so he will resume his fight for more points tomorrow in race 2. Unfortunately Jason had a crash early in Race 1 at the Villeneuve Chicane which saw him fracture his right lower leg, this is such a shame for him and we hope he makes a full and speedy recovery. I travelled with Jason to the hospital and despite the injury he's doing well and he impressed the team with his performance on the bike this weekend. Overall a tough day, but we'll be back showing our fighting spirit tomorrow
Gagne just misses out on points as O’Halloran crashes in Imola WorldSBK Race One
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