Doha (Qatar), 21 October 2019 - Starting from Thursday 24th till Saturday 26th October 2019, the Losail Circuit Sports Club in Doha, Qatar, will host the last round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship.
For this round, which as usual is run at night and whose programme is brought forward by one day for religious reasons, Pirelli has decided to rely almost exclusively on standard tyres in all classes.
The Qatari circuit this year will also host the first non-European round of the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship but, as the world title - as in WorldSBK, has already been conquered, all eyes will be on the 600 category where the three Yamaha’s riders Randy Krummenacher, Federico Caricasulo and Jules Cluzel will fight for the world title.
The Swiss rider leads the standings with 202 points but in the last two races, had little luck totalling only 9 points, to the advantage of his teammate in the BARDAHL Evan Bros WorldSSP Team, the Italian Caricasulo, who is now just 8 points behind at 194. More detached, on 180 points, the Frenchman of the GMT94 YAMAHA team who in the last few races has shown greater consistency with a sixth place realised in France and a first place in Argentina.
Although the Riders Championships has already been decided in WorldSBK and WorldSSP300, in the premier class who will win the Manufacturers title remains to be determined, with Kawasaki leading the standings with 611 points and a 37 point advantage over Ducati, with only 62 points remaining up for grabs. The Manufacturers Championship is already assigned in the 600 class, where Yamaha was the undisputed champ, and in the 300, won by Kawasaki.
Inaugurated in 2004, the Losail Circuit Sports Club is located a few kilometres away from the capital of Qatar and its flagship is undoubtedly represented by the innovative lighting system that allows night racing at night lighting up the entire track day.
Despite the presence of strategically placed artificial grass around the circuit to keep away the sand coming from the desert and carried by the wind, usually in the first sessions on Thursday when the tyres are facing dirty asphalt that offers little grip.
Precisely with the aim of cleaning the track, in the first sessions riders will probably need to ride steadily to better manage tyre wear.
On this track a good compromise is required between the stability of the front during demanding braking and a good level of traction at the rear to set the trajectories correctly in the fast turns. At the front a tyre capable of absorbing the high power accumulated during braking without suffering deformation is needed, at the rear riders have to focus on soft tyres to provide adequate traction.
The solutions for the WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes:
Pirelli brings a total of 2667 tyres to Losail to meet the needs of all the three classes in the Championship. For this round Pirelli, as mentioned, has decided to rely almost exclusively on standard tyres.
In the WorldSBK class, Pirelli confirms the solutions already seen in action in the last rounds, naturally assisted by intermediate and full wet options. In particular, for the front the two options in the larger 125/70 size are confirmed, which are the standard SC1 in soft compound and the development SC2 X1071 in medium compound that were used in all the rounds of this season.
As for the rear, the standard SC0 of the 200/65 range will be joined by the development solution Y0446, which debuted at Imola and was also taken to Misano, Donington, Laguna Seca and San Juan Villicum. This second option has the same structure as the standard SC0 but a compound more oriented to performance in the case of particularly high asphalt temperatures. The third and last alternative for the rear is the SCX solution which, as happened in Jerez, Misano, Donington and San Juan Villicum, is present here in the Y0447 specification. Of course for the Superpole® the riders will also be able to count on the rear solution in supersoft compound in the X0684 specification.
Exclusive standard tyres for the last WorldSSP race. The riders will be able to count on two front and as many rear solutions, as well as the intermediate and wet tyres. As for dry solutions, the choice can be made between the standard SC1 and SC2 at the front, while at the rear the pilots will be able to opt for the standard SC0 or SC1. This last solution could be useful especially in the first sessions, when the track could be dirtier due to the presence of sand.
The WorldSSP300riders, as for all the rounds held this year, will have three sets of SC1 compound tyres both front and rear.
More details on the race solutions for WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes are available in the technical sheets attached to this press release.
The 2018 Pirelli statistics for Losail
Total number of tyres brought by Pirelli: 2199 Number of solutions (including dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class: 5 front and 7 rear
• Number of tyres available for each WorldSBK rider: 32 front and 33 rear
• Number of solutions for the WorldSSP class (including dry, intermediate and wet): 4 front and 5 rear
• Number of tyres available for each WorldSSP rider: 20 front and 22 rear
• WorldSBK Best Lap Awards both won by: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)in 1'57.284 (Race 1, 2nd lap). Race 2 not carried out due to bad weather
• WorldSSP Best Lap Award won by: Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing), in2'02.873 at 5th lap
• Temperature in Race 1: air 30° C, asphalt 32° C
• Temperature in Race 2: Not carried out due to bad weather
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 317.6 km/h in Race 1 by Eugene Laverty (Milwaukee Aprilia) at 2nd lap and by Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) at 12th and 13th laps
• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Supercorsa SC tyres in WorldSSP race: 284.2 km/h, by Federico Caricasulo (GRT Yamaha Official WorldSSP team) at 2nd lap.
Source - Press.Pirelli.com