Fritz Scores Top 10 Finish for YART Yamaha in Maiden WorldSBK Race at Most

07-08-2021

Fritz Scores Top 10 Finish for YART Yamaha in Maiden WorldSBK Race at Most

On his FIM Superbike World Championship debut, YART Yamaha’s Marvin Fritz managed to ride a controlled and mistake-free race at the Autodrom Most circuit, crossing the line in 10th place, with teammate Karel Hanika showing promising speed before falling.

Both YART Yamaha riders were well in the mix once again in the morning’s Free Practice 3 session, with Fritz going seventh fastest while Hanika was ninth, ahead of WorldSBK race-winners and former championship contenders.

In the Superpole session, German rider Fritz was only able to marginally improve on his FP3 time, which was still good enough for 12th on the grid. At the start, the 28-year-old had difficulty getting off the line and dropped to 15th, but began making his way back up the order, as a number of riders crashed on the tricky Czech circuit. Fritz eventually crossed the line in 10th, seeing him pick up six world championship points.

On the other side of the garage, local star Hanika qualified just 0.085s behind his teammate and lined up 13th for the race. At the start, the 25-year-old found himself down in 17th in the frenetic opening lap, but managed to make his way back into 15th by lap three. After setting a lap time of 1'33.715 – on par with the top six runners – Hanika then fell at Turn 1 and could not continue.

With a race experience behind them, the YART Yamaha team will be hoping to have both riders inside the points come tomorrow, with the Superpole Race and Race 2 getting underway at 11:00 (GMT+2) and 15:15 respectively.

For full Superpole results, click here.
For full Race 1 results, click here.

Marvin Fritz: P10

YART Yamaha

The start was difficult, I saw all the others get off the line so well, but I realised it was because they were in third gear, whereas I was in first. I was lucky to stay on the bike in the first corner. I tried to make some good moves, but I made a mistake on the third lap and lost a few places. I was coming back through and I saw a lot of riders falling; I had many slides myself especially with the harder front tyre. I tried to find a rhythm and I said to myself ‘OK, just stay on the bike for this race’ and in the end we were P10, which is awesome for my first race. I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me this would be the result before the weekend. Of course, we have some areas to improve, the bike feels really good over one or two laps, but we need to make it work for the race distance. I’m pretty sure we can make another step, and now we have this good result I will take a few more risks tomorrow.

Karel Hanika: DNF

YART Yamaha

In the qualifying I did a good lap, but when pushing for the second I had a crash. I felt I did everything right on the start but I didn’t get a great launch. This is definitely an area we need to work on. I was on the SCX tyre, so I knew I needed to push early on and I overtook a few riders, set a good lap time, and I felt I could be in the group that finished around seventh position in the end, but unfortunately in the first corner I had a wobble on the rear and I got forced over the front. For sure it’s my mistake, I apologise to the team and mechanics, I will try my best to recover for tomorrow though and get a good result.