An unlucky end to a strong Race 1 for Bautista at Aragón, Haslam tenth

The first day race day making up round four of the 2020 Superbike World Championship at Motorland Aragón in Spain brought mixed results for Team HRC, with Alvaro Bautista crashing out while running a strong, fast race, fourth position well within his reach, and Leon Haslam crossing the line tenth.

During the 25-minute Superpole phase, Haslam completed a series of fast laps, the best of which was a 1’49.430 set with the qualifying tyre in the final minutes that saw him position sixth. Bautista was already quick on the race tyre but, after putting in the qualifying solution later in the session, found some traffic during his fast lap and recorded a fastest time of 1’49.470 to finish just a fraction of a second behind his team-mate in seventh place. 

At 2pm local time the lights went out on Superbike race 1. Bautista lost a little ground off the line, positioning twelfth at the end of lap one. Reacting strongly and able to establish a good rhythm after the initial laps, the Spaniard was able to close in on, and pass, Baz and Razgatlioglu in quick succession to place sixth on lap eight. With fourth place well within his reach, Alvaro unfortunately suffered a crash on lap twelve and was unable to continue, an unlucky end considering his performance up until that point.

From sixth on the grid, Haslam made a good start, holding his position through the opening stages. Despite this encouraging start, the Brit then started to lose significant ground, finding himself twelfth on lap seven. By modifying his riding style to deal with some set-up issues, Leon was able to make up a couple of places during the course of the race, to ultimately cross the line in tenth place.