The 3C team made a remarkably successful debut on the international stage with four top-10 placings at the World Superbike meeting in Magny Cours.

The open practice session on Friday was held under sunny conditions and all the riders in the 3C-Racing Team wanted to put in as many laps as possible. Apart from a short practice session in Mugello beforehand, they had hardly had a chance to get a feel for the new WSBK bike. This was a major handicap because there is a considerable difference between the engines and chassis of the IDM and WSBK bikes.

The 3C-Racing Team was supported in the pits by five Ducati engineers and its IDM partners Öhlins and Pirelli. Both companies sent their technicians from the IDM series to Magny Cours to provide the best possible support for the wild card start of the IDM-winning 3C Racing Team.

Xavi Forés qualified directly for the superpole 2, whilst Max Neukirchner and Lorenzo Lanzi had to take the long route via the superpole 1. Neukirchner (12th position) lined up with Forés (11th position) on the fourth row of the starting grid. Lanzi ended up starting from 15th position.

It rained non-stop on the Sunday of the meeting and both legs turned into wet races. Forés rode brilliantly and had the chance of finishing in the top 5 in both races. However, he fell in the first race whilst lying in 6th place and unfortunately also had to drop out of the second race with a technical defect.

Neukirchner secured his best World Championship placings since 2009 with 6th and 9th positions and thus earned the 3C-Racing Team two top 10 places on its first World Championship appearance.

Lanzi lived up to his reputation as a rain specialist. In the first race at Magny Cours he crossed the finishing line immediately behind Davide Giugliano (Ducati works team) in 8th position and thus one place ahead of Neukirchner. Lanzi managed an even bigger sensation in the second race by finishing 5th, his converted IDM 3C-Racing Team machine was the best placed Ducati in this race – over 40 seconds in front of the works machine of Chaz Davies (9th position).

Team boss Karsten Jerschke: "The technical level and the riding skills in World Superbike racing are very impressive. It's exciting to have so much competition all of a sudden, the gaps between all the riders are minimal. All in all, 3C was able to keep up with the world's elite. From a standing start, the team has conjured up a bike capable of taking on the best in the world on a completely different basis to that in the IDM series. In view of the fact that the competition has had a whole year to fine-tune their machines, our result is almost sensational."