| Team Yamaha MGM Celebrates First Superbike*IDM Win at the Lausitzring |
Team Yamaha MGM's Max Neukirchner brought home the first Superbike*IDM International German Championship win of the 2015 season aboard his new YZF-R1M at the third round at the Lausitzring. Teammate Damian Cudlin consistently improved his pace throughout the weekend and collected valuable points with two solid top-five results.
As this weekend's races formed a part of the Deutsche Tourenwagen-Masters (DTM) schedule, the Lausitzring saw a different layout in comparison to the first round held at the same track when Neukirchner and Cudlin impressed with some strong results.
Clearly liking the German circuit, Neukirchner showed a solid pace on Saturday afternoon. He secured second spot on the grid and looking confident for the first race, which took place only a few hours after the Superpole.
The German got a good start off the line at the beginning of the 21-lap sprint, but dropped back to fourth position after a small mistake on the brakes in the first corner. The 32 year old quickly fought his way back to second place before getting caught up in a hard fight with Markus Reiterberger for the lead. The pair swapped positions numerous times before Neukirchner took over at the front and made it stick at lap ten. With clear track in front of him he put the hammer down and was able to break away from his rival. Unchallenged for the remaining laps he delighted his team with the first race win of the 2015 season with a convincing lead of 6.245 seconds.
Neukirchner had another decent start in the second race and was following Reiterberger and Xavi Forés in third place at the end of the first lap. After sizing his rivals up for a couple of laps, he made his move to take second position. He gave all he had to reduce the two-second gap to Reiterberger and gradually inched close, but in the end he came a bit more than a second short. He finished the weekend with a second place and a double podium, which saw him move up to second place in the overall standings with 101 points.
Teammate Cudlin had a more challenging weekend. He fell back from fifth to eight position at the start of the first race and lost valuable time as he tried to make up ground. He bravely fought his way back to fifth place and was able to defend this position to the line.
The Australian and his crew spend the Saturday evening fine-tuning settings of his Yamaha YZF-R1M and the work paid off; Cudlin had a much better feeling in the second race and held fifth position after the opening lap. Two laps later he was able to pass Lanzi for the fourth place, but had to give the position back at the end of the race. His two top five results keep him seventh in the overall standings with a 46 points total.
Team Yamaha MGM team will be back in action in two weeks time (June 12 to 14) at the fourth round of the Superbike*IDM staged at the famous Nürburgring.
| | | Race 1 - 1st, Race 2 - 2nd | | "We really did a fantastic job, the first win for Yamaha in Germany. I couldn't be happier. Two rivals passed me at the start and I was pushed back to the fourth position. I was able to pass Lanzi pretty quickly and followed Fores until he made a mistake some laps later in the first corner and I got through. From this point I pushed like crazy to catch up with Reiterberger. The gap got smaller, but in the end it didn't really work out. I'm happy anyway; a win, a second place and 45 points this weekend, I think I can really be pleased." | |  |
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 | | | | Race 1 - 5th, Race 2 - 5th | | "It's a good day for our team because Max took the first victory and he did a really great job, so I'm happy for him and the team. Obviously I would like also to be joining him on the podium, but today we weren't quite strong enough. We made a small improvement today. The position was the same, but it was a lot closer this time. At least this time I was able to catch and pass Lanzi at one point and had a good speed. It was really just the last part of the race where I started to suffer from loss of grip and I started to lose a lot of time at the end. Lanzi was a little bit stronger, so he was able to pass me back and I couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't the big improvement I was hoping to make, but it's a step and I think we're going in the right direction. I really hope that we will be able to continue our progress at the next round at the Nürburgring." | |
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1. Max Neukirchner, Yamaha YZF-R1M, 27:50.524
2. Markus Reiterberger, BMW S 1000 RR, +6.245
3. Xavi Forés, Ducati 1199 Panigale R, +10.386
4. Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati 1199 Panigale R, +10.621
5. Damian Cudlin, Yamaha YZF-R1M, +34.138
6. Mathieu Gines, Yamaha YZF-R1M, +40.779
7. Roman Stamm, Kawasaki ZX-10R, +42.015
8. Lucas Trautmann, Kawasaki ZX-10R, +44.306
9. Max Fritzsch, Kawasaki ZX-10R, +47.825
10. Matej Smrz, BMW S 1000 RR, +48.078
1. Markus Reiterberger, BMW S 1000 RR, 27:52.822
2. Max Neukirchner, Yamaha YZF-R1M, +1.777
3. Xavi Forés, Ducati 1199 Panigale R, +13.539
4. Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati 1199 Panigale R, +18.691
5. Damian Cudlin, Yamaha YZF-R1M, +21.086
6. Mathieu Gines, Yamaha YZF-R1M, +39.318
7. Matej Smrz, BMW S 1000 RR, 43.557
8. Roman Stamm, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 45.353
9. Lucy Glöckner, BMW S 1000 RR, +45.965
10. Dominik Vincon, BMW S 1000 RR, 48.467
| Championship Standings - Superbike |
1. Markus Reiterberger, Van Zon-Remeha-BMW, 145
2. Max Neukirchner, Team Yamaha MGM, 101
3. Xavi Forés, 3C-Racing Team, 100
4. Lorenzo Lanzi, 3C-Racing Team, 83
5. Matej Smrz, Wilbers-BMW-Racing Team, 64
6. Jan Halbich, Holzhauer Racing Promotion, 52
7. Damian Cudlin, Team Yamaha MGM, 46
8. Erwan Nigon, HPC-Power Suzuki Racing, 40
9. Gareth Jones, Weber-Diener Racing Team, 37
