Pirelli Donington Notes

For the race at Donington, PIRELLI has always shown an impressive organizational effort, considering the variability of English weather.

For the 131 drivers on the track during the weekend PIRELLI brought 5455 tires, of which there were 36 different options available.

For the SBK in particular, riders had a choice of 4 front slicks including one new compound derived from development of the new SC2, as well as 3 rear race solutions, with still the new super-soft Superpole solution featuring a yellow PIRELLI sticker on the sidewall for differentiation.

The performance of the new super-soft DIABLO SUPERBIKE Superpole tyre, which has the possibility of making 4-5 fast laps, was demonstrated successfully again this Saturday, so much so that the fast lap of the track, a 1'30 "370 produced by Troy Bayliss in 2007, was literally disintegrated, and not by just one pilot.

The new Best Lap was made by Michel Fabrizio in Superpole 2, stopping the clocks at 1'29 "664, but 10 other drivers also registered times below the previous record. Fabrizio's time couldn't be bettered in Superpole 3, when the final pole position is awarded, due to the arrival of rain. So the conquerer was Ben Spies (Yamaha), who took his eighth out of nine Superpoles for the season. Ben Spies (Yamaha) sealed his ninth win in Race 1, managing to pull ahead at the end from the courageous Max Biaggi, whose excellent performance brought the Aprilia their first second place podium spot after coming so close in Qatar. In third place was Noriyuki Haga (Ducati), who had tried to keep up with the leading two, finally dropping his pace and accepting his position.

All three leaders were running the "B" solution PIRELLI DIABLO SUPERBIKE rear, which proved to have a better performance than the "A" on the 23 laps around the Donington circuit. The incredible fight for second through fourth in Race 2 did not include Ben Spies (Yamaha), who dominated even more impressively than in Race 1. In this second race the asphalt temperature was 10° higher than the previous one of the day, but the temperature change did not bring substantial changes to the behavior of PIRELLI's DIABLO SUPERBIKE tyres, although the overall race time increased by 17".