Xavi Vierge eleventh in both Sunday’s SBK races at Phillip Island
Phillip IslandXavi Vierge and the Honda HRC Team have concluded the opening round of the 2025 Superbike World Championship in Australia with an eleventh-place finish in both of Sunday’s races.
Factory rider Iker Lecuona was unfortunately unable to participate in the racing after sustaining a left foot fracture during Saturday’s Superpole. This meant that Xavi Vierge was the team’s sole representative in the day’s Superpole Race and second Superbike race.
After taking part in a brief morning warm-up, the Spaniard turned his attention to the Superpole race, which ran in the early afternoon in dry conditions. Getting away well from twelfth on the grid, Xavi was quickly up to ninth. Just as he began to settle into a promising rhythm, he was handed an undeserved long lap penalty. After completing the long lap on lap six, the Spaniard dropped to thirteenth. With fewer than four laps remaining, Vierge made every effort to regain ground, but he was unable to improve his position, holding thirteenth to the finish. After the race, Race Direction ruled to reduce his final race time by three seconds in recognition of the undeserved penalty, which ultimately elevated the Honda HRC rider to an eleventh-place finish, a result that meant no improvements for his grid position for Race 2.
Like yesterday, the 20-lap Superbike race involved a mandatory tyre change mid-race. Lining up in fourteenth position for the weekend’s final race, Vierge moved into twelfth through the first corners. Another close-fought race saw a group of seven or eight riders making up the chasing group in the early stages, with Xavi in the middle of this group. Thirteenth as he came in to switch tyres, Vierge was lying twelfth once back on track for the second half of the race. Doing his best to sustain consistent pace all the way to the end, the Honda HRC rider overtook Aegerter on the final lap to cross the line eleventh. With the points scored this weekend, Vierge places 11 in the championship standings (10 points) at the end of the season-opener.
The Honda HRC Team will be back in action for a two-day testing session at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portugal on 14-15 March, before returning to the same track on the weekend of 28-30 March for WorldSBK Round 2. Lecuona will now return to Spain and focus on his recovery.
The first race of the year is done. Of course, we were expecting more, but the reality is what it is. The high temperatures didn’t help us either. But anyway, I want to say thanks to the team, they’ve worked really well, even with the extra challenge of two flag-to-flag races. They were just perfect, and this is very important, especially since we have a newly formed crew this year. I can say the same for the work done with my crew chief and electronics engineers. Together, we exploited the full potential of the bike at this moment, and it’s very clear to us where we need to improve. Today, unfortunately, during the Superpole race, when I was ninth and fighting to improve our grid position, I received a long lap penalty, which was undeserved, and I lost every opportunity I had to fight for a top-nine finish. In the end, it made the difference between a possible third-row start and an actual fifth-row start. Anyway, that aside, we need to stay focused on the job ahead. We have a lot of data to look at, as well as a two-day test planned ahead of Round 2. Let’s see if we can turn things around quickly this season.
The first race of the year is done. Of course, we were expecting more, but the reality is what it is. The high temperatures didn’t help us either. But anyway, I want to say thanks to the team, they’ve worked really well, even with the extra challenge of two flag-to-flag races. They were just perfect, and this is very important, especially since we have a newly formed crew this year. I can say the same for the work done with my crew chief and electronics engineers. Together, we exploited the full potential of the bike at this moment, and it’s very clear to us where we need to improve. Today, unfortunately, during the Superpole race, when I was ninth and fighting to improve our grid position, I received a long lap penalty, which was undeserved, and I lost every opportunity I had to fight for a top-nine finish. In the end, it made the difference between a possible third-row start and an actual fifth-row start. Anyway, that aside, we need to stay focused on the job ahead. We have a lot of data to look at, as well as a two-day test planned ahead of Round 2. Let’s see if we can turn things around quickly this season.
