Abe disappointed but still top Yamaha.

Former MotoGP rider Norrick Abe had a less than ideal race one for the Yamaha France team at the third round of the World Superbike championship at Valencia.

Abe was running in the top three in the first race of the day but was unfortunately caught out by tyre wear towards the end of the race. He turned his luck around in the second race to finish a strong fifth and remain the top Yamaha rider in the championship standings.

"It was unlucky to crash in race one as I had a good feeling on the bike," he admitted. "I knew 100 percent that I could get third but there was a rider immediately in front of me so I wanted second; it's better than third! Maybe I pushed the front too hard, so I crashed. Race two was held in very different conditions, a warmer track for example, and the rear grip was less from the beginning. That was more of a disappointment than race one."

Abe's team-mate Gimbert managed to hold onto a sixth place finish in the first race but was slowed by his engine over-heating in the second outing, causing the Frenchman to drop back a number of places by the chequered flag.

"In the last couple of laps of race two the engine overheated and I lost a lot of power," he said. "That made it incredibly difficult for me. There was also a big change in the track conditions between race one and race two, and that made the bike slide a lot more in the second one. Race one was okay, a good finish in sixth."