Strong top five for Vierge at Misano, a blameless crash rules Lecuona out of race 2
Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”Team HRC rider Xavi Vierge concludes the day’s WorldSBK races at the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ in eighth and fifth position, impressive results considering that he started sixteenth on the grid in the sprint race.
Team HRC rider Xavi Vierge concludes the day’s WorldSBK races at the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ in eighth and fifth position, impressive results considering that he started sixteenth on the grid in the sprint race. Hit by another rider, team-mate Iker Lecuona is ruled unfit to compete in the second Superbike race.
The riders lined up for the Superpole race at 11am local time and in sunny conditions. The Team HRC duo were lying seventh and tenth one lap into this short sprint. Vierge soon closed in on team-mate Lecuona and, on lap four, the pair were lying a close seventh and eighth. Lap seven unfortunately brought a crash for Lecuona, who fell at turn 8 after a contact with Petrucci. The incident resulted in a red flag, which signalled the end of the race, with riders having completed just seven laps. Team-mate Vierge finished an impressive eighth, having made up eight positions in just a handful of laps and improving significantly on his grid position for race 2 as a result.
Iker was transported to the circuit Medical Centre where he was diagnosed with a left hip injury and a left ankle contusion. The Spaniard was therefore deemed unfit to compete in the day’s second and final race.
The final race of the weekend ran over a distance of 21 laps. Xavi lined up in eighth on the grid and almost immediately made up one position when the race got underway. Up into sixth on lap seven, the Team HRC rider lapped with similar pace to the riders immediately ahead, running a consistent central phase. Gaining another position in the final stages, Vierge secured a very solid top five finish, thus boosting his championship points total.
In terms of the general standings after this fifth round, Vierge now lies eighth in the championship standings with 87 points while Lecuona positions eleventh with 64 points. Team HRC will be back on track at the Donington Park circuit in the UK over the weekend of 30 June-2 July.
I’m really happy with our performance today. Yesterday we had a very unlucky qualifying, coming up against one yellow and one red flag on my two fast laps. Starting from sixteenth on the grid makes life quite difficult on the strong WorldSBK grid and especially here, where overtaking is tough. Yesterday I gave it my all anyway, and we reached the top ten. We then made a small change to the bike set up that gave me that little extra that I needed to run a very good Superpole race. We earned a third row start and a good opportunity for Race 2. We made the most of it and scored a positive top five. We are really happy with this result and with the work we have done this weekend, and that we doing in general. It’s true that Ducati is quite far ahead and finishing race 2 more than 20 seconds from the winner is still too much, but we are now closer to Kawasaki and Yamaha and were not far from the podium, just three seconds in fact. So we must keep up the good work. Lastly, I’m sorry for Iker who had really bad luck today in the sprint race but, on the other hand, it seems that he’s not badly hurt fortunately. I wish him a speedy recovery.
We had a big crash in the Superpole race and it was not even my fault as I was hit from behind by another rider. I had to go to the medical centre and was declared unfit for race 2. I’m not feeling great but not too bad either. The good thing is that I’ve nothing broken, and this is the most important thing. On the other hand, I have this contusion to a muscle in my leg and a few hematomas here and there, so it’s best I don’t walk for two or three days and rest completely. But this is racing in the end. The positive of the weekend is that we have been improving throughout - I’ve continued to find feeling with the bike again and we were fighting when I crashed. Now we focus on recovering in time for Donington. Depending on my feeling in few days, we will see if I can start with some light training, on the bicycle or in the gym, or need to wait longer. But I’m confident I can be fully fit for Donington.
