Magny-Cours: Yamaha riders took each other out – twice

Yamaha is the only manufacturer in the World Superbike Championship field to field four works riders: Andrea Locatelli and Xavier Vierge at Pata, and Remy Gardner and Stefano Manzi at GRT. Naturally, they are not only competing against the rest of the field, but are also rivals amongst themselves.

In the first race on Saturday, a tense situation arose between Vierge and Gardner as they battled for 11th place, during which the Australian fell from his R1, ended up off the track and sarcastically applauded his team-mate.

In the second main race on Sunday, Manzi and Locatelli were battling for 15th place: at the end of the first lap, Locatelli skidded whilst braking for the final chicane because Manzi left him no room on the outside – his bike slid all the way into the pit lane.

Canepa: “We were unlucky twice”

Naturally, Yamaha’s SBK racing boss Niccolo Canepa is not pleased with such behaviour. However, as a long-standing racer at the very highest level, he doesn’t view it solely through the eyes of a manager. “Incidents like this are normal,” the Italian emphasised during a meeting with SPEEDWEEK.com. “The atmosphere within our team remains excellent, because we not only have four outstanding riders, they’re also brilliant people. Unfortunately, things like this sometimes happen in motor racing. On this circuit, contact can easily occur; we’ve been unlucky twice. And of course I’m not happy about it. In both cases, it was a close call – nothing might have happened – but then things went the other way.”

Willkommen zum Rennen in Magny-Cours

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Nicolò Bulega

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Axel Bassani

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Boxengasse

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Garrett Gerloff

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Fans

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Xavier Vierge

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Sam Lowes

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Iker Lecuona

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Álvaro Bautista

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Start des Rennens

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Lorenzo Baldassarri

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Axel Bassani

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Sam Lowes

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Nicolò Bulega

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Iker Lecuona

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Yari Montella

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Nicolò Bulega gewinnt beide Läufe in Frankreich

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Bulega und Lecuona

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Podium Lauf 1 - Iker Lecuona, Nicolò Bulega, Sam Lowes

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Podium Lauf 2 - Iker Lecuona, Nicolò Bulega, Yari Montella

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Sieger Nicolò Bulega

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Willkommen zum Rennen in Magny-Cours

© Gold & Goose

Canepa continued: “I always talk to my riders and we try to maintain a good atmosphere within the Yamaha family. Every one of them wants to be up front. And when they see an opportunity to attack and make it into the top 10, it’s only natural that they give it a go. I think Saturday’s crash gave Gardner a lot of extra motivation to overtake Vierge in the final corner of the last lap of the Superpole race. Vierge had apologised to the team and to Remy – the atmosphere within the teams is better than expected.”

Gardner and Vierge secured the best results in France, finishing eighth in the Sprint and the second main race. In the overall standings, Locatelli is the best-placed rider from this Yamaha quartet, sitting twelfth.