A consistent race day performance for Team HRC at Motorland Aragón
MotorLand AragónTeam HRC has now concluded round ten of the 2023 Superbike World Championship at Motorland Aragón, with riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge crossing the line sixth and sixth, and seventh and eighth respectively in the day’s two races.
Team HRC has now concluded round ten of the 2023 Superbike World Championship at Motorland Aragón, with riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge crossing the line sixth and sixth, and seventh and eighth respectively in the day’s two races.
First up was the ten-lap Superpole race, a short sprint that really puts the riders’ abilities to the test. From row two of the grid, Iker soon progressed from seventh to sixth. From there, he worked to find a rhythm that would allow him to stick with, and potentially close in on, the riders immediately ahead. Able to maintain consistent pace throughout, Lecuona ultimately crossed the line sixth, securing the same grid position for race 2 as a result.
When the lights went out, Vierge quickly made up two positions from twelfth on the grid. Demonstrating good pace through the first half of this short sprint, with lap times in line with those of the top three, Xavi moved up into seventh place on lap five, a little over a second behind team-mate Iker. Lapping with almost identical times to his team-mate, Xavi crossed the line seventh. Thanks to this result, the Spaniard earned himself a better grid position for the afternoon’s second and final race.
The Superbike riders were back out early afternoon for the second and final Superbike race. From sixth and seventh on the grid, Iker and Xavi did their best to exploit their grid positions. Vierge positioned sixth through lap one, followed closely by Lecuona, eighth. The duo oscillated between sixth and eighth position throughout the eighteen-lap race, before Iker took final sixth place, with Xavi closing just over a second behind him in eighth.
As this tenth round of the 2023 championship concludes, Vierge positions eighth in the general standings with a total of 132 points, Lecuona thirteenth with 114. Team HRC will travel straight on to Portimão, and the Internacional Autódromo do Algarve, for round eleven, taking place from 29 September to 1 October.
Not a bad Sunday at all, I’m happy with it. We expected to be at this level before coming here, because we knew from the recent test here that our pace was good, but we were of course also aware that Toprak and Loca were not at that test, so we had a pretty clear idea of our level. Over the weekend I focused on my race pace, lapping alone as much as possible, and I think we did a very good job in terms of preparing for the races. It was a pity about that jump start yesterday of course, so today I took particular care not to do the same thing again. In today’s races, I was easily fighting in the top ten, part of the second group and with very good feeling on the bike. I only struggled to find my rhythm over maybe the first four or five laps of race 2, but then the pace of the guys ahead dropped while mine remained consistent, so I could catch my team-mate and some of the other riders. I got very close to Bassani but then in the final laps I had a big moment through turn 12 and am not even sure how I managed to avoid going down. When I realised I was still in the race, I chose to settle for sixth which is a solid result, and a very important one for me. Now we have a couple of days to relax and then we’ll see if we can keep the momentum going at Portimão.
It has been a solid Sunday after a difficult race on Saturday when we struggled unexpectedly. In this morning’s warm up, I was able to find the feeling we’d had during practice and felt strong and competitive again. The Superpole race was very good for us, possibly the best we’ve had this year, both in terms of the result and my feeling on the bike. I came into contact with another rider soon into the race, and lost ground because of that, but I was feeling really strong and was able to make several passes to finish seventh. The long race was positive enough, not what we are here for of course but the kind of result we can expect and fight for right now. So I’m happy with that and happy with the work we’ve done together in the garage. Now we turn our attention to Portimão, a track that I like and one I’m really looking forward to racing at again.
