Brad Ray has offered his apologies to the Motoxracing Yamaha team after a difficult second outing of the year at the Catalunya WorldSBK concluded with a heavy crash.

The Englishman came to the Spanish event bidding to make a step forward on more familiar territory having been the only rider in the WorldSBK field during the Australian season opener to have never raced at Phillip Island.

However, despite feeling a step forward in competitiveness on the privateer Yamaha R1 was made over the weekend, it wasn’t reflected in the results after Ray failed to crack the points’ paying positions.

With the event ending on a sour note with a fast crash at Turn 1 that also took down Iker Lecuona, Ray remains confident he can come back stronger when the season resumes with Round 3 at Assen, scene of his 2023 WorldSBK debut.

“I’m happy with the progress made in race 1. Although the end result wasn’t great, we seem to have found a direction in which to work with the bike. 

“[However, it was] A tough Sunday for me and the team. In the Superpole race, the front tyre quickly wore, while in Race 2 I crashed through sector 1, taking Lecuona down with me, which I am very sorry about. 

“The only thing we can do is try to quickly find a way out of this situation. 

“I’m really sorry about the lack of results so far, and the crash, and apologise to my team, after all their hard work, but I’m sure we’ll be able to come back stronger.”