Both Team HRC riders score a fourth-place finish at Aragón

Round 5 of the Superbike World Championship draws to a conclusion at the Motorland Aragón circuit in Spain with promising results for Team HRC, rider Alvaro Bautista finishing fourth in the Superpole race, Leon Haslam scoring the same result in the second Superbike race. 

Despite an unfortunate outcome in two of the weekend’s three races, Bautista nevertheless demonstrated that he consistently had the pace for a potential podium finish. 

After a brief early morning warm-up session, the 10-lap Tissot Superpole race got underway at 11am. Starting from the second row of the grid, Bautista was quickly up into sixth position. From lap four he was caught up in a battle with Razgatlioglu for fifth, soon passing him before moving up into fourth position on lap seven. Skilfully defending his position from Davies during the closing stages, the Spaniard crossed the line in fourth position. Haslam was lying eighth through the opening stages. The Brit battled briefly with Sykes mid-race, exchanging positions with him before crossing the line in eventual eighth position.

The HRC riders returned to the track in the early afternoon for the final 18-lap Superbike race. Bautista, fourth off the line, held his position through the opening laps, very much part of the leading group and in the mix for what could well have been a podium finish. Unfortunately it was not meant to be, and a crash on lap four, heading into turn 9, prevented him from continuing what promised to be a strong race. Eighth on the grid, Haslam got away well and made up one place off the line. Up into sixth on lap two, the British rider got into a good rhythm that allowed him to move into fifth position on lap five. Roughly one second down on the fourth-placed rider, Haslam worked to close the gap, eventually progressing to fourth on lap thirteen when Davies crashed ahead of him. Leon was able to effectively manage the final stages of his race and cross the line in fourth position, scoring his best result of the season and thirteen valuable championship points in the process.

Five rounds in to the 2020 season and Bautista lies eighth in the championship standings with 83 points, while Haslam positions tenth with 75 points. Team HRC will return to Spain for round 6 of the WorldSBK championship, scheduled to take place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya over the weekend of 18-20 September.