PJ Jacobsen put together an impressive performance in Sunday’s ninth-round World Supersport race at the Lausitzring racetrack in Germany. The Honda WorldSSP rider went from ninth place on the grid to fourth at the chequered flag, courtesy of an extremely competitive last part of the race, which saw Jacobsen making up three places in the last five laps.
Jacobsen was able to maintain his position at the start, he kept his own rhythm in the early stages of the race and, as the laps went by, he built speed upon speed. Towards the end, he was one of the fastest riders on track. After moving up to sixth place, the young American shadowed Federico Caricasulo and, once both riders got past Randy Krummenacher on the penultimate lap, he decided to have a shot at fourth place and overtook the fellow Honda rider at turn 10.
Last year’s Vice Champion then rode as hard as he could to seal fourth place at the line. Courtesy of this result, Jacobsen is now only nine points away from second place in the standings.
Round 10 of the 2016 FIM Supersport World Championship will take place in a fortnight’s time at Magny-Cours in France.
Patrick Jacobsen 2 4th
Today was really good for us. A fourth in the race felt like a podium to me, given how much we struggled this weekend. I really couldn’t figure the track out and find the right setup to be fully competitive. In the race I never gave up and kept going and did my best time on the final lap. I just wish the race could have been longer! Thanks to the team for never giving up as well; we’ll come back stronger in Magny-Cours, a track where I won last year. I’m really looking forward to racing there.
Pieter Breddels, Technical Manager
We tried some new settings during warm up but PJ struggled in finding a clear lap; because of that we were unsure about the change, although we thought the setup for dry conditions was a little better. His start was not perfect and it took him a while to find his rhythm, but in the last eight laps he managed to pick up the pace and really get going. He went from eighth to fourth at the line. Honestly, this was the best result we could have hoped for today. We have some more work to do to put ourselves in a better position at Magny-Cours, especially in qualifying. On the bright side, we are closing the gap to second place in the standings and that’s really good news.
