Kyle Smith took fifth place on his Honda CBR600RR at a hot and sultry Sepang circuit in Malaysia in Sunday afternoon’s ninth round of the World Supersport championship. The race was won by fellow Honda rider PJ Jacobsen in his maiden World Supersport victory.
Smith had never ridden the 5.543km Sepang circuit before Friday’s free practice sessions and made a good start despite a wet FP2. Tyre grip woes in yesterday’s qualifying, however, restricted the 23-year-old to a third row start for today’s 14-lap race.
The British Pata Honda rider got a superb start and was running in third place in the early stages before dropping back to seventh. Smith found his rhythm to climb back into fifth place but, by then the leading group had opened a gap he was unable to bridge.
Smith will now head back to Europe to meet for the first time his new daughter, Julia, who was born last weekend while he was racing for Honda in the 8 Hours race at Suzuka in Japan. He will return to World Supersport action on his Honda CBR600RR at Jerez in Spain on 18-20 September.
Kyle Smith - P5
It was a very lonely race but I am happy with the result. It was a new track for me, we had one session which was wet and we’ve struggled a little for pace all weekend. We also had some problems with tyres in qualifying which didn’t help us find the pace, but at least the grip and tyre wear were consistent today, so that was positive. To finish fifth in the race was a solid result that was needed by me and the whole team after a couple of DNFs so I’m happy to go into a summer break with that.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinatorIt was a fairly good day and Kyle got a really good start to the race today. Unfortunately he couldn’t maintain that pace and dropped back to seventh at one point. When he got back to fifth he was able to run away from the group behind but couldn’t close the gap to the front. We’re pretty happy with the result and we’re already looking forward to the races after the summer break to try and get back to the podium again.
Race Results
1 Patrick Jacobson 30m21.294s USA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand 2 Jules Cluzel +0.091s FRA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse 3 Lorenzo Zanetti +3.387s ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse 4 Kenan Sofuoglu +3.456s TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing 5 Kyle Smith +9.507s GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team 6 Roberto Rolfo +15.835s ITA HONDA Team Lorini 7 Martin Cardenas +16.281s COL HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda 8 Gino Rea +16.298s GBR HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda 9 Christian Gamarino +19.628s ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven 10 Alex Baldolini +20.959s ITA MV Race Department ATK#25
Championship Standings
1 Kenan Sofuoglu 168 pts TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing 2 Jules Cluzel 155 pts FRA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse 3 Patrick Jacobson 140 pts USA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand 4 Lorenzo Zanetti 113 pts ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse 5 Gino Rea 88 pts GBR HONDA CIA Landlords Insurance Honda 6 Roberto Rolfo 68 pts ITA HONDA Team Lorini 7 Kyle Smith 67 pts GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team 8 Alex Baldolini 50 pts ITA MV Race Department ATK#25 9 Christian Gamarino 47 pts ITA KAWASAKI Team GO Eleven 10 Ratthapark Wilairot 46 pts THA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand
