Another strong performance for Team HRC; Lecuona 4th and Vierge 6th in race 1 at Cremona
Cremona CircuitTeam HRC riders Lecuona and Vierge place fourth and sixth in the first race making up this ninth WorldSBK round at the Cremona Circuit, scoring their best race result of the season so far.
Team HRC riders Lecuona and Vierge place fourth and sixth in the first race making up this ninth WorldSBK round at the Cremona Circuit, scoring their best race result of the season so far.
Saturday kicked off with a final free practice session, in which factory riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge made significant progress. Iker ducked under 1’30 for the first time mid-session, moving up to sixth overall. With three minutes to go, the Spaniard set a blistering 1’29.100, which projected him further up the timesheets, into third place overall. Xavi too made some small technical adjustments and was able to set a best of 1’29.593 in the final stages, to place tenth, a good eight tenths better than his FP2 reference and just four tenths from his team-mate.
Later in the morning the team headed back on track for the Superpole qualifying. Vierge set a fast time early on, but this was unfortunately cancelled due to a yellow flag. Xavi’s best lap came in the final minutes, once he had pitted to make a tyre change. A time of 1’28.752 saw him move inside the top five with 3 minutes to go, with the rider ultimately qualifying seventh. Team-mate Iker set a similarly impressive initial time (1’28.811) that was then cancelled due to a yellow flag. The Spaniard also suffered a crash mid-session, through turn 7, which caused him to lose valuable time. Back out for the end of the session, Lecuona was finally able to put in a valid time, setting a 1’28.845 to place eighth. With these results, both Team HRC riders secured a spot on the third row of the grid for the afternoon’s first race.
Race 1 ran at 2pm CET in warm, sunny conditions. Both Vierge and Lecuona got away well, holding their starting positions through the first corners. Moving up into sixth on lap two, the rider #97 (who competed in his 97th SBK race today) soon got into a very good rhythm, with team-mate Iker able to match his pace. Progressing to fifth and sixth respectively on lap nine, Xavi and Iker then exchanged places and gained another position following a crash for Alex Lowes. By lap twelve, Iker had passed Locatelli to move up into third, a position he then held for four laps. Neither he nor Xavi were ultimately able to fend off Bautista, who was charging full speed from behind. Iker had just been relegated to fourth when the race was brought to a premature end with a red flag on lap seventeen owing to technical issues. In the final race classification, Iker finished P4, missing out on the podium by a little over one second and followed, just two seconds later, by team-mate Xavi, who lost out on fifth place to Bassani by just 86 thousandths of a second. Team HRC achieved its best combined result of the season so far.
I feel exhilarated. First of all, thanks to the team, who very quickly repaired my bike during qualifying, after I had a crash that wasn’t too big but could still have completely ruined my session, especially since my only fast lap up to that point had just been canceled due to the yellow flags. It was a tricky session, with a lot of yellow flags, and finally, with only a few minutes remaining, I had just one chance to secure a decent spot on the grid, and fortunately, we did it. After a strong P3 in FP3, we knew we had the potential, and it would have been a shame to waste that. So P8 on the grid was fine. In the race, I was calm and confident, as I knew we had the pace to at least run at the front of the second group. I moved up to P5, trying to remain gentle on the tyres and waiting for the right moment behind my teammate. When I saw Locatelli was in P3, I thought it was time to go. I passed Xavi, signalling him to follow me, telling him, ‘let’s not lose time and let’s catch Loca.’ We caught him, I passed him and a small gap soon opened up. I struggled a bit with front grip, but I managed, even though I took some risks and nearly crashed at one point through turn two. I could ‘feel’ the podium but didn’t expect Alvaro to arrive with that kind of speed. I was a couple of tenths faster than the others in my group, but he was faster than me. I had no chance to defend third place, so I just stayed calm and finished the race. We got the job done, finishing close to the front, P4, in a long race that ran in dry conditions. It’s been a good day, and now we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Of course, the Superpole is always a gamble; everyone can give it their all as you don’t have to consider tyre life, so it can be an opportunity but also a disaster if something happens and you end up outside the top nine. Let’s stay focused and try to have a good Sprint so we can have another chance to exploit our strong pace in Race 2. Finally, congratulations to Danilo (Petrucci). I’m really happy for him. We were good teammates in MotoGP, and when he came here, I told him he would enjoy it a lot, so I’m really happy he’s taken a win in his home country.
I feel exhilarated. First of all, thanks to the team, who very quickly repaired my bike during qualifying, after I had a crash that wasn’t too big but could still have completely ruined my session, especially since my only fast lap up to that point had just been canceled due to the yellow flags. It was a tricky session, with a lot of yellow flags, and finally, with only a few minutes remaining, I had just one chance to secure a decent spot on the grid, and fortunately, we did it. After a strong P3 in FP3, we knew we had the potential, and it would have been a shame to waste that. So P8 on the grid was fine. In the race, I was calm and confident, as I knew we had the pace to at least run at the front of the second group. I moved up to P5, trying to remain gentle on the tyres and waiting for the right moment behind my teammate. When I saw Locatelli was in P3, I thought it was time to go. I passed Xavi, signalling him to follow me, telling him, ‘let’s not lose time and let’s catch Loca.’ We caught him, I passed him and a small gap soon opened up. I struggled a bit with front grip, but I managed, even though I took some risks and nearly crashed at one point through turn two. I could ‘feel’ the podium but didn’t expect Alvaro to arrive with that kind of speed. I was a couple of tenths faster than the others in my group, but he was faster than me. I had no chance to defend third place, so I just stayed calm and finished the race. We got the job done, finishing close to the front, P4, in a long race that ran in dry conditions. It’s been a good day, and now we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Of course, the Superpole is always a gamble; everyone can give it their all as you don’t have to consider tyre life, so it can be an opportunity but also a disaster if something happens and you end up outside the top nine. Let’s stay focused and try to have a good Sprint so we can have another chance to exploit our strong pace in Race 2. Finally, congratulations to Danilo (Petrucci). I’m really happy for him. We were good teammates in MotoGP, and when he came here, I told him he would enjoy it a lot, so I’m really happy he’s taken a win in his home country.
A solid day for us. Our first goal was to have a good qualifying session, and it wasn’t easy because there were a lot of yellow flags and lap time cancellations, but in the end, we managed to complete a lap that was good enough for the third row. That definitely helped, especially since I found myself struggling a bit with grip. It affected me from the start of the race; otherwise, realistically, it would have been possible to fight stronger. When Iker passed me, he had a bit more pace. I tried to stick with him, but I lost some time with Locatelli. After that, I was planning to save the tyres for the final lap, but then the race was red-flagged, and I didn’t get the chance to fight until the end. We have a clear idea of how to improve for tomorrow to manage the grip better and try to fight at the front again.
A solid day for us. Our first goal was to have a good qualifying session, and it wasn’t easy because there were a lot of yellow flags and lap time cancellations, but in the end, we managed to complete a lap that was good enough for the third row. That definitely helped, especially since I found myself struggling a bit with grip. It affected me from the start of the race; otherwise, realistically, it would have been possible to fight stronger. When Iker passed me, he had a bit more pace. I tried to stick with him, but I lost some time with Locatelli. After that, I was planning to save the tyres for the final lap, but then the race was red-flagged, and I didn’t get the chance to fight until the end. We have a clear idea of how to improve for tomorrow to manage the grip better and try to fight at the front again.
