Team HRC aims to continue positive WorldSBK trend at Jerez
Circuito de Jerez - Angel NietoJust three days after the Catalunya round, Team HRC prepares for the second of the events making up the Iberian WorldSBK triple-header. The stage for round ten of the championship is the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto in Spain.
Having powered the CBR1000RR-R FIREBLADE to a podium and a fourth-place finish at the Barcelona circuit last weekend, Alvaro Bautista aims to continue in this vein at Jerez, another home track for the Team HRC rider. Team-mate Leon Haslam also wants to achieve solid results throughout this last part of the 2021 season.
Last year’s Jerez round took place in early August, right after the enforced break caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. During that event, Bautista scored a best of seventh in the weekend’s first race, while Haslam was ninth in the Superpole race. Bautista holds the current race lap record, having set a 1’39.004 during the 2019 edition of the Superpole race.
The Jerez de la Frontera circuit is located in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia. Opened in 1985, the track hosted its first international motorcycle events the following year. The Superbikes first competed at Jerez in 1990 and have paid regular visits to the track since 2013. The track currently measures 4.423 km in length and features 13 corners. Team HRC enjoys racing at this Spanish circuit and, as the championship gradually builds towards the season finale, both riders are keen to improve on their positions in the overall standings by scoring solid results across all three of the weekend’s races.
Weekend schedule (CEST):
Friday
10.30 – 11.15 – SBK Free Practice 1
15.00 – 15.45 – SBK Free Practice 2
Saturday
9.00 – 9.30 – SBK Free Practice 3
11.10 – 11.25 – Superpole
14.00 – SBK Race 1
Sunday
9.00 – 9.15 – SBK Warm-up
11.00 – Superpole race
14.00 – SBK Race 2
“We arrive at Jerez in very good spirits after a positive weekend at Barcelona. We hope to have the same feeling and be able to work as well as we did last weekend. Jerez is a slightly different track to Barcelona though, as although there are some long corners, there aren't so many straights so maybe we'll suffer a little more, but we'll see. We completed a test recently so we have some references that will be useful. We are always trying to improve and are currently fixing some details that are taking us in the right direction. I hope to have another good weekend in front of the Spanish fans.”
“Jerez is a circuit at which I struggled a lot last year. Having said that, we made a very good test there in hot conditions not so long ago, and this is quite a positive sign because we generally struggle in high temperatures. So hopefully this information can help us as we head into the race weekend. Once again, we will be testing a series of things to see if we can improve our overall package.”