Dutch Round Completed – TPR by Vinales Racing Set on Spanish Improvements

The iconic TT Circuit Assen was the scene for the opening round of the FIM Superbike World Championship this past weekend with TPR by Viñuales Racing lining up on the grid for the first time this season.

Rider Isaac Viñales, no stranger to the WorldSBK series is the team’s sole rider this year and after both he and the team unveiled a striking new race livery on Thursday, the hard work began.

Qualifying twenty third, Viñales steadily improved throughout the weekend and after finishing twenty third Race 1 on Saturday he finished eighteenth on Sunday.

Both Viñales and the team are satisfied with the Dutch round results given a limited pre-season test programme and the fact that Isaac had jumped on the bike after riding for a different manufacturer in a world endurance race a few days earlier.

The next round of WorldSBK takes place in Spain next week.

Isaac Viñales:
“It was our first weekend of the season, and I am quite content with the work we did. The team is completely new and step by step we made improvements. The first race was good to understand many things and I was confident for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday we made a big step forward compared to Saturday and that’s positive. In the Superpole race we had a slight problem, and we couldn’t finish it, but in race two we improved our pace a lot, especially from the middle of the race onwards. We know where we must improve. I want to thank the team for their work all weekend and I am looking for even more in Montmelo.”

Lucio Pedercini:
“We knew that with little testing and with us not racing the full season this year that it would not be easy and so we arrived in Assen with the mindset of the Dutch round being an extended test for us. I am quite positive that we both improved and understood what we must work on, and we will look to make a step at Catalunya. We will, as we always have, continue to do our best but we believe in the project, and we will continue to work. Isaac arrived directly from the twenty-four-hour endurance race, and he did well in re-adapting to the Kawasaki in such a short time. It is good to finally have our first race completed. See you all in Spain.”