Top ten for Lecuona and Vierge in WorldSBK race 1 at Jerez
Circuito de Jerez - Angel NietoThe final round of the 2023 Superbike World Championship is in full swing at the Spanish circuit of Jerez, with the first of the weekend’s SBK races bringing solid results for factory riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge, ninth and tenth across the line.
The final round of the 2023 Superbike World Championship is in full swing at the Spanish circuit of Jerez, with the first of the weekend’s SBK races bringing solid results for factory riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge, ninth and tenth across the line.
At what is another home round for the pair, the Spaniards were back in action during the morning’s third practice session, in which both made very good progress. Improving on his best of yesterday by more than a second, Lecuona moved up into fifth overall in the combined practices. Vierge was able to lower his lap time by a similar margin, placing twelfth overall at the end of the three prep sessions.
In the morning’s Superpole session, the Team HRC riders worked hard to secure a strong qualifying position for the final races of the year. Lecuona was inside the top ten on his first qualifying tyre, but was able to shave off just a couple of tenths with the second one, meaning his best time in 1’39.748 saw him place fourteenth at the session’s end. Vierge set a fastest time of 1’39.792, which was enough for an sixteenth place finish. The duo thus qualified on the fifth and sixth rows of the grid for the afternoon’s race.
Fifteenth and sixteenth through the opening turns, Xavi and Iker were lapping with similar times and made similar progress to each other through the early stages of the 20-lap race. Up into eleven and twelfth place by lap four, the Team HRC duo continued to push hard into the second half of the race, although a four-second gap had in the meantime opened up in front of them. After swapping position on lap 12, they made up another place each five laps from the end.
Iker then held ninth and Xavi tenth all the way to the line to add more important points to their championship tally.
We cannot say it has been an easy week end for us so far so this P9 is a solid result all considered. After a positive FP3, I had a so and so qualifying: I made good enough first flying lap, but with the second tyre I suffered much more spinning and I could just finish 14th. Not an easy grid place, especially here in Jerez a tricky track for overtaking. I got off to a good start when the light went off but then everybody jumped into the first corner and I just tried to “survive” in the group. Xavi overtook me I corner 2 so I decided to follow him closely while we both recover some positions through the pack. When he began to struggle halfway into the race I took my chance and passed him. The second group was a few seconds away but our pace was too similar for me to close the gap. So, I kept my position, riding a bit alone in the final laps. As I said all considered we collected some points for the Championship and let’s see tomorrow. Finally, congratulations to Alvaro Bautista for his title.
We must be happy with a top ten at this track, where everyone is very fast and where we have been struggling quite a lot. For us here is difficult to make the difference: we saw that in the qualifying where a very decent lap time put us just 16th place. But we know our race pace was solid so I try and make a good start and immediately recovered a few positions. I tried to catch the group in front and I think I push too much in the first half of the race and I stressed the tyres. I had no grip in the second half so I just tried to save my P10. Now let’s see if we can find a bit more for tomorrow and make a better result. Congratulations to Alvaro he made again an amazing season, always focusing on himself, and setting his own pace. At the moment he’s the strongest, at another level.
