Alvaro Bautista and Team HRC improve on their pace in race 1 at Portimão

Team HRC has completed the first race day making up round 3 of the Superbike world championship at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, riders Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam crossing the line in ninth and twelfth place respectively.

The morning’s final free practice session saw both riders shave a full second of each of their respective best times set yesterday as the team made its final preparations for the afternoon’s first race. It was soon time for Superpole, a 25-minute phase in which, as is customary, times began to tumble in the last five minutes. Leon’s best reference, a 1’41.607 set later in the session, earned him a spot on row four of the starting grid, in tenth position. Alvaro unfortunately suffered a crash mid-session which caused him to lose precious minutes, his reference of 1’42.123 therefore placing him twelfth, meaning a position on the same row as his team-mate. 

The lights went out on the first of the weekend’s Superbike races at 2pm local time. Haslam, quick off the line, moved up from tenth to eighth during the course of lap one. From twelfth on the grid, Bautista lost a couple of positions through the first turns but quickly made these up again to place eleventh by lap three. Establishing a good pace, Alvaro soon caught his team-mate, passing him on lap five to move into tenth place. While Haslam struggled to maintain his rhythm particularly during the central stage of the race due to a lack of rear grip, Bautista continued to gain ground and was in fact one of the fastest on track with eight laps to go. Making up another position, the Spaniard ultimately crossed the line in ninth position, his British team-mate closing in twelfth.