Ryuichi Kiyonari discovers the spectacular Laguna Seca track

2019-07-15 14:13
In perfectly sunny conditions on this opening day of the WorldSBK US Round, Ryuichi Kiyonari headed out to ride the 3610 metres of the legendary WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca track for the first time ever.

The Japanese rider enjoyed the challenging Californian track and spent the two free practice sessions getting to grips with the layout and beginning the bike set-up work together with his crew.

Kiyonari positioned fifteenth in FP1 but dropped to 18th overall by the end of day. Tomorrow’s final free practice will start at 9am ahead of the Tissot Superpole at 11am and Race 1 at 2pm.

Ryuichi Kiyonari 23
18TH 1'25.858
“This track is amazing. Fast, challenging, with some up-and-downs and cambered corners. It has a very unique character. Some turns are fairly easy to learn, others just take your breath away and take more time to adapt to. The team has done a good job with the set-up and the suspension setting of the bike, preparing it for this track, and my feeling this morning was generally pretty good. In the afternoon we did not make a big enough step forward though. We need to keep working and in particular we need to try and find more grip, because the asphalt here is quite slippery”.

Ryuichi Kiyonari
Free Practice
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1
DAVIES
Chaz 7 GBR ARUBA Racing - Ducati 1'23.387
2
REA
Jonathan 1 GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 0.032
3
BAUTISTA
Alvaro 19 SPA ARUBA Racing - Ducati 0.263
4
SYKES
Tom 66 GBR BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team 0.410
5
HASLAM
Leon 91 GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 0.465
6
BAZ
Loris 19 FRA Ten Kate Racing - Yamaha 0.538
7
RAZGATLIOGLU
Toprak 54 TUR Turkish Puccetti Racing 0.556
8
LOWES
Alex 22 GBR Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team 0.825
9
VAN DER MARK
Michael 60 NDL Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team 0.860
10
TORRES
Jordi 81 SPA Team Pedercini Racing

Source: HRC

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