An uphill climb for Team HRC in Sunday’s WorldSBK races at Donington

Round six of the Superbike World Championship has concluded today at Donington Park, with Team HRC and official riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge completing the races but with results that fell below their expectations.

The action got underway later than usual in a change to the standard Sunday schedule. Riders lined up on the grid for the 10-lap Superpole race, which began at 1pm local time (CET-1). As per their qualifying results yesterday, Lecuona again started from thirteenth on the grid and Vierge from seventeenth. Having made a good start, Iker was straight up into the top ten on lap one, with Xavi behind him in fourteenth place. Unfortunately, the pair struggled to match the pace of those immediately ahead, gradually slipping back to fourteenth and fifteenth position. In the final stages, both were able to make up one place, with Lecuona finishing thirteenth and Vierge fourteenth.

Later in the day, the factory riders were back on track for the third and final race of the weekend, which ran in similarly cool and cloudy conditions to the previous sprint race. A multi-rider incident on lap one immediately saw the race halted with a red flag. The race was restarted a short time later and reduced to a distance of 22 laps, with Lecuona and Vierge lining up in twelfth and fourteenth position respectively on the grid. Vierge made a strong start and was lying tenth by the end of lap one, while Lecuona lost a few positions through the first turns and found himself fifteenth. Thirteenth at the mid-race stage, Vierge unfortunately had to pull into the pits on lap fifteen due to a small technical issue problem, while team-mate Lecuona crossed the line fourteenth, even if consistently improving his pace in the second half of the race.

After the first six rounds of the WorldSBK championship, Vierge places tenth in the general standings with a total of 92 points, while team-mate Lecuona lies twelfth with a tally of 66. Team HRC will next race at the Imola circuit in Italy, the stage for round seven, which will play out over the weekend of 14-16 July.