Team HRC riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge complete the first race making up the fourth Superbike World Championship round at the Misano World Circuit ‘Marco Simoncelli’ in tenth and sixteenth place respectively.

During the early morning FP3, which ran in fairly cool conditions, both Lecuona and Vierge improved on their times with respect to yesterday. Iker placed among the top five for a good part of the session, lowering his time by a couple of tenths to set a best time of 1’34.054. Xavi continued to take steps in the right direction, shaving off another half second to record a 1’34.122 as he worked with his team to make final preparations ahead of the Superpole.

Iker put in a 1’33.644 during the first few minutes of the Superpole qualifying phase. The Spaniard then made a second exit and pushed hard to improve his reference but a small issue during his final flying lap meant that this initial time remained his best. Lecuona thus qualified fourteenth, securing a spot on the fifth row of the grid. On the other side of the garage, Xavi recorded his fastest time, a 1’33.834, with one minute to go. This result saw him close seventeenth, for a place on the sixth row.

The first of the weekend’s races ran as scheduled at 2pm local time (CEST). From fourteenth, Lecuona was lying thirteenth through the opening lap. Holding that position in the initial stages, he found himself part of a close group of four or five riders all lapping with very similar times. He was able to pass one rival mid-race to move into twelfth and, from there, he worked hard to move in on the group ahead, his stronger pace allowing him to reach Bassani and pass him on lap 18. Iker continued to push hard to the line, concluding race 1 in tenth place.

Vierge was unfortunately hit by another rider and crashed on lap 1. Unhurt, he was able to get back on his bike and rejoin the race, albeit at the back of the field. The Spaniard had his work cut out to catch the pack but was lapping two seconds quicker than riders at the back of the field, which meant he reached them by the mid-race point. Twentieth on lap 13, Xavi gained a further four positions in the latter stages to finish a valiant sixteenth just out the point zone.

The racing weekend will conclude tomorrow with the Tissot Superpole race at 11:00 am and Race 2 at 2:00 pm local time (CEST).

Iker Lecuona 7

P10

“Finally, a proper race, despite some frustration during qualifying, which was the only session of the weekend so far where we struggled to maintain a positive trend. Not being able to exploit the Q-tyre has often been a weakness for us. I took risks with both soft tyres and encountered a small issue with the bike on my second flying lap, forcing me to slow down midway. Consequently, I had to start from further down the grid, but I knew my potential was better than that. The first lap was tough as I got caught in traffic after the first corner and dropped to about eighteenth position, but I managed to overtake five riders at turn four, so not a bad start to the race overall. I held onto thirteenth place behind Tito (Rabat) for some time until he noticed I had better pace and made me pass, which meant I was able to chase down Bassani. I pushed hard while also taking care to manage the tyres and succeeded in passing him on lap 18. Towards the end, I kept pushing to closing in on Danilo, but then I preferred to finish the race safely, with only a couple of laps to go. It's been a while since I've been able to fight on track, enjoy overtaking, and have fun. So I’ll take this tenth place finish and work with the team to analyse the data collected today in order to hopefully make further improvements tomorrow, especially in terms of the front-end feeling”.

Xavi Vierge 97

P16

“Another challenging day this weekend, but with some positives to take away. While it's true we’re still not fast enough, we've worked hard in the garage to improve the feeling and setup of the bike compared to yesterday. We're still missing around half a second compared to the front runners, but we're pushing hard and getting all we can from what we have. Unfortunately, in Race 1, I was hit by another rider on the first lap and crashed. I managed to recover, rejoin the race, and finish to gather valuable data for tomorrow. My pace was consistent, and I believe without the incident, we could have been fighting for a position somewhere between eighth and twelfth. For now, that's our limit, so we need to stay focused and continue our efforts. Once again, I want to thank the entire team and everyone at HRC. Despite the challenges, everyone is doing their best, and we'll keep forging ahead in this way.”

WorldSBK 2024
Race Round 04   Rimini

Results Tissot Superpole

Sunny
Humidity
40%
Track Temp
35°C
Air Temp
27°C
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Razgatlioglu Toprak 54 TUR ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW 1'32.320
2 Bulega Nicolò 11 ITA ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 1'32.556 0.236
3 Gardner Remy 87 AUS GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha 1'32.906 0.586
4 Lowes Alex 22 GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 1'33.075 0.755
5 Bautista Alvaro 1 SPA ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 1'33.111 0.791
6 Locatelli Andrea 55 ITA PATA PROMETEON YAMAHA Yamaha 1'33.129 0.809
7 Iannone Andrea 29 ITA Team GOELEVEN Ducati 1'33.188 0.868
8 Lowes Sam 14 GBR ELF Marc VDS Racing Team Ducati 1'33.196 0.876
9 Aegerter Dominique 77 SWI GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha 1'33.234 0.914
10 Rabat Tito 53 SPA Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Kawasaki 1'33.544 1.224
11 Bassani Axel 47 ITA Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 1'33.608 1.288
12 Petrucci Danilo 9 ITA BARNI Spark Racing Team Ducati 1'33.632 1.312
13 Gerloff Garrett 31 USA Bonovo Action BMW BMW 1'33.634 1.314
14 Lecuona Iker 7 SPA Team HRC Honda 1'33.644 1.324
15 Rea Jonathan 65 GBR PATA PROMETEON YAMAHA Yamaha 1'33.682 1.362
16 van der Mark Michael 60 NDL ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW 1'33.774 1.454
17 Vierge Xavi 97 SPA Team HRC Honda 1'33.834 1.514
18 Rinaldi Michael Ruben 21 ITA Motocorsa Racing Ducati 1'33.935 1.615
19 Pirro Michele 51 ITA ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 1'33.942 1.622
20 Redding Scott 45 GBR Bonovo Action BMW BMW 1'34.104 1.784
21 Mackenzie Tarran 95 GBR PETRONAS MIE Racing HONDA Team Honda 1'34.733 2.413
22 Öttl Philipp 5 GER GMT94 Yamaha Yamaha 1'35.032 2.712
23 Ray Bradley 28 GBR Yamaha MotoxRacing WorldSBK Team Yamaha 1'35.538 3.218
24 Norrodin Adam 27 MAL PETRONAS MIE Racing HONDA Team Honda 1'36.082 3.762
WorldSBK 2024
Race Round 04   Rimini

Results Race 1

Sunny
Humidity
39%
Track Temp
44°C
Air Temp
29°C
Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Razgatlioglu Toprak 54 TUR 25 ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW Time of Race 33'07.016
2 Bulega Nicolò 11 ITA 20 ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 1.782
3 Bautista Alvaro 1 SPA 16 ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 3.176
4 Locatelli Andrea 55 ITA 13 PATA PROMETEON YAMAHA Yamaha 10.337
5 Lowes Alex 22 GBR 11 Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 11.671
6 Gardner Remy 87 AUS 10 GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha 14.822
7 Iannone Andrea 29 ITA 9 Team GOELEVEN Ducati 16.637
8 van der Mark Michael 60 NDL 8 ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW 19.044
9 Petrucci Danilo 9 ITA 7 BARNI Spark Racing Team Ducati 20.686
10 Lecuona Iker 7 SPA 6 Team HRC Honda 24.041
11 Bassani Axel 47 ITA 5 Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 26.233
12 Gerloff Garrett 31 USA 4 Bonovo Action BMW BMW 30.303
13 Pirro Michele 51 ITA 3 ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 32.536
14 Rinaldi Michael Ruben 21 ITA 2 Motocorsa Racing Ducati 35.186
15 Redding Scott 45 GBR 1 Bonovo Action BMW BMW 35.566
16 Vierge Xavi 97 SPA 0 Team HRC Honda 45.895
17 Öttl Philipp 5 GER 0 GMT94 Yamaha Yamaha 46.811
18 Ray Bradley 28 GBR 0 Yamaha MotoxRacing WorldSBK Team Yamaha 54.387
19 Rabat Tito 53 SPA 0 Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Kawasaki 1'04.508
20 Norrodin Adam 27 MAL 0 PETRONAS MIE Racing HONDA Team Honda 1'10.077
21 Lowes Sam 14 GBR DNF ELF Marc VDS Racing Team Ducati 6 Laps
22 Aegerter Dominique 77 SWI DNF GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team Yamaha 11 Laps
23 Mackenzie Tarran 95 GBR DNF PETRONAS MIE Racing HONDA Team Honda 13 Laps
24 Rea Jonathan 65 GBR DNF PATA PROMETEON YAMAHA Yamaha
Location Information

Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” Via Daijiro Kato, 10 47843 Misano Adriatico (RN) – Italy Misanocircuit.com

POLE POSITION RIGHT
LENGTH 4.226 Km
CORNERS 16
RIGHT CORNERS 10
LEFT CORNERS 6

Records

Pole Record 1'32.320 (164,792 Km/h) T. Razgatlioglu (BMW M 1000 RR, 2024)
Race Record (SPRC) 1'32.687 (164,140 Km/h) T. Razgatlioglu (BMW M 1000 RR, 2024 SPRC)
All Time Record 1'32.320 (164,792 Km/h) T. Razgatlioglu (BMW M 1000 RR, 2024)
2024 Race 1 Winner T. Razgatlioglu (BMW M 1000 RR)
2024 Superpole Race Winner T. Razgatlioglu (BMW M 1000 RR)
2024 Race 2 Winner T. Razgatlioglu (BMW M 1000 RR)