Foret's fortune

Kawasaki bagged their first World Supersport win for four years yesterday after their two top men in the series showed a remarkable sense of team spirit at Phillip Island.

Fabien Foret took the win after a typically flamboyant ride, much in thanks to team-mate Pere Riba selflessly giving him his best race engine for the event, leaving himself with an engine he knew was of a lower spec.

Foret blew his No.1 lump shortly after setting pole position, and the former champ was resigned to having to use one of his spare engines, until Riba said he?d sacrifice his own hopes in favour of the team.

The Gil Kawasaki squad are developing the bike at such a pace that they brought several different engines, but the last remaining ‘good’ one was so much better it brought them victory far earlier than even Foret expected.

He said: “I knew we could do fast laps, and wasn’t that surprised to get pole. But really I wasn’t thinking that we could get the win here, especially with tyre life an uncertainty for us.”