Top ten for Lecuona in the Superpole race, ninth for Vierge in race 2 at Most
Autodrom MostTeam HRC concludes the eighth round of the 2023 Superbike World Championship with mixed results at the Most Circuit in the Czech Republic, Lecuona placing tenth in the Superpole race and Vierge closing ninth in the afternoon’s second Superbike race.
Team HRC concludes the eighth round of the 2023 Superbike World Championship with mixed results at the Most Circuit in the Czech Republic, Lecuona placing tenth in the Superpole race and Vierge closing ninth in the afternoon’s second Superbike race.
After a wet warm-up session, the SBK field headed out on a dry track for the morning’s ten-lap Superpole race. Lining up once more on rows three and four of the grid respectively, Vierge and Lecuona got off the line fast, particularly Xavi who was straight up into fourth. Unfortunately, his race came to an end just a few corners later when he crashed after another rider hit him at turn 15, although fortunately the Spaniard was unhurt. Tenth through lap one, team-mate Lecuona oscillated between tenth and eleventh for the duration of this short ten-lap sprint and ultimately rounded out the top ten on the results sheet.
The second and final 22-lap Superbike race ran according to schedule at 2pm local time and again in dry conditions. Vierge and Lecuona started from eleventh and thirteenth respectively, the former moving into tenth place, the latter dropping to fifteenth through lap one having been caught up in the chaos that ensued just after the lights went out. Iker soon made up the lost ground, setting a pace that allowed him to climb to twelfth by lap five, tucking in behind team-mate Xavi. The Team HRC duo held eleventh and twelfth until race leader Razgatlioglu crashed, meaning they each gained a position as a result. Vierge was able to pass Baz on the very last lap to cross the line ninth, with Lecuona just half a second behind but in twelfth place.
As the WorldSBK championship goes on its six-week summer break, Xavi Vierge now places tenth with 105 points, while Iker Lecuona lies thirteenth with 87 points.
Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge will compete, respectively, in the British MotoGP round and the Suzuka 8 Hours, with both events taking place over the weekend of 4-6 August. Team HRC will be back in action in six weeks’ time, on 8-10 September, for the ninth Superbike World Championship round at the Magny-Cours circuit in France.
So, overall, I think we had a challenging weekend with some struggles at the beginning and some missed opportunities before we were able to find our way with the setup. In fact, after struggling in FP3, the team did really well to give me a bike I felt really comfortable with, and we enjoyed our best qualifying session of the season so far. Then we know how it went in Race 1 with the tyre choice, and so today we were looking for more. I made a very good start in the Superpole race and was able to fight very close to the frontrunners, but unfortunately Rinaldi hit me with the wing of his bike through turn 15 and I couldn’t save the crash. So it was important in race 2 to finish the race and we did that, placing top 9. Not what we are aiming for but it’s not too bad a result either, so, again we will take the positives, learn from the experience and look forward to the next test we have in Aragon at the end of the month to keep working, improving and pushing hard to achieve our goals.
It has been something of a complicated weekend but with some good moments too. After a strong race yesterday, albeit in strange conditions, the feeling wasn’t bad in this morning’s sprint race either. I was one of few riders to go for a hard rear tyre and I could maintain decent speed to finish tenth, nothing special but OK anyway. This afternoon I made a less than ideal start, which happens sometimes unfortunately. As a result, I got caught up in the group and in the chaos of the first turn another rider ran wide, which caused me to lose ground and positions. After that I was able to recover to some extent; my target was the group just up front that included my teammate. Step by step I closed the gap, passed one rider and arrived right behind Xavi. I tried to pass him as well, but I realized it was too risky as the strong points of our bikes are the same, so I could not find a way to overtake in a “safe” way so I stayed there in case he left the door open or made a mistake. He didn’t, and when he passed Baz I tried to do the same but instead lost one position. Having said all that, we collected some points this weekend, had some fun yesterday and will now keep working to prepare for the next races.
