Bautista deprived of a possible podium, Haslam a solid eighth in race 1
Motorland Aragón is the stage for the opening round of the 2021 Superbike World Championship, one on which Team HRC Alvaro Bautista showed podium potential today while Leon Haslam scored some solid points, finishing race 1 in eighth place.
The morning’s final practice allowed the riders to refine the set-up of their CBR1000RR-R FIREBLADES and make some final adjustments with their technicians ahead of the qualifying session. Bautista was able to improve on his best of yesterday by eight tenths (1’50.085), to finish fifth, while Haslam’s fastest lap, a 1’50.916, saw him close the session in twelfth place.
The Superpole ran in cooler conditions (16°C) with respect to yesterday’s sessions and both Bautista and Haslam completed two fast laps apiece during the now shortened 15-minute session. A best of 1’49.246 for the Brit saw him close seventh, while the Spaniard finished in eighth position with a fastest time of 1’49.338. References that put both riders on the third row of the grid for the weekend’s first race.
The season’s opening race, contested over 18 laps, got underway at 2pm (CEST). The Team HRC riders retained their positions off the line, lying eighth (Haslam) and ninth (Bautista) through the first turns. The pair lapped with similar pace through the opening stages, swapping places with each other and working to catch Sykes immediately ahead of them. Picking up the pace, Bautista passed the BMW rider on lap five, to move into seventh position. By the mid-race point, the Spaniard was in fact the quickest rider on track, passing Gerloff to take sixth position. He continued to lap with a very strong rhythm, moving ever closer to a possible podium finish. Unfortunately, these hopes were dashed when the Spaniard crashed on the very last lap, at turn 2, the incident a result of an electric problem. Haslam lost a little ground towards the mid-race point, lying tenth, but was able to make up two positions in the final stages to cross the line eighth.
Alvaro Bautista 19
“It's really a pity about today because we were running a very competitive, high-performance race. Through the first laps, I lost a little bit of time fighting with other riders. This caused a little bit of a gap to open between me and the group ahead, but once I’d found my rhythm and made some passes, I was able to lap strongly and catch up to the podium contenders. I had a good chance to stay there and fight until the end but unfortunately, three or four laps from the end, I started to have some gearing issues. Every lap it got a little worse and then right at the end I crashed at turn two. When we analysed the data, we saw that there was an electronic problem with a sensor, and so in the middle of the corner I was at full power and lost the rear tyre. A shame, but luckily, I am unhurt and, if we look on the positive side, we can be happy with our race performance. Tomorrow we have two more opportunities and so we’ll see how it goes. I am happy with the work we’re doing because we are getting closer and closer to the leaders and hopefully tomorrow, we can finish the races with good results.”
Leon Haslam 91
“The race was pretty tough to be honest, as I was struggling a little with front traction, which meant I didn’t feel I could really push. We managed the situation fairly well though and won a battle with the Yamaha on the final lap, but my performance was a little up and down over the course of the race. My pace wasn’t far from that of the top five but I didn’t feel I was in a position to really fight. We’ll work to try and improve things ahead of tomorrow’s races, so that I can hopefully be in the mix for the positions that count.”
Results Tissot Superpole
Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rea Jonathan | 1 | GBR | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | Kawasaki | 1'48.458 |
2 | Redding Scott | 45 | GBR | ARUBA Racing - Ducati | Ducati | 1'48.733 / 0.275 |
3 | Sykes Tom | 66 | GBR | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | BMW | 1'48.840 / 0.382 |
4 | Lowes Alex | 22 | GBR | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | Kawasaki | 1'48.890 / 0.432 |
5 | Davies Chaz | 7 | GBR | Team GOELEVEN | Ducati | 1'49.069 / 0.611 |
6 | Gerloff Garrett | 31 | USA | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK | Yamaha | 1'49.185 / 0.727 |
7 | Haslam Leon | 91 | GBR | Team HRC | Honda | 1'49.246 / 0.788 |
8 | Bautista Alvaro | 19 | SPA | Team HRC | Honda | 1'49.338 / 0.880 |
9 | Rinaldi Michael Ruben | 21 | ITA | ARUBA Racing - Ducati | Ducati | 1'49.516 / 1.058 |
10 | Razgatlioglu Toprak | 54 | TUR | PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK | Yamaha | 1'49.704 / 1.246 |
11 | Rabat Tito | 53 | SPA | BARNI Racing Team | Ducati | 1'49.761 / 1.303 |
12 | Laverty Eugene | 50 | IRE | RC Squadra Corse | BMW | 1'49.767 / 1.309 |
13 | Mahias Lucas | 44 | FRA | Kawasaki Puccetti Racing | Kawasaki | 1'49.951 / 1.493 |
14 | Locatelli Andrea | 55 | ITA | PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK | Yamaha | 1'49.962 / 1.504 |
15 | van der Mark Michael | 60 | NDL | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | BMW | 1'50.189 / 1.731 |
16 | Nozane Kohta | 3 | JPN | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK | Yamaha | 1'50.435 / 1.977 |
17 | Ponsson Christophe | 23 | FRA | Alstare Yamaha | Yamaha | 1'50.489 / 2.031 |
18 | Folger Jonas | 94 | GER | Bonovo MGM Racing | BMW | 1'50.628 / 2.170 |
19 | Vinales Isaac | 32 | SPA | ORELAC Racing VERDNATURA | Kawasaki | 1'50.672 / 2.214 |
20 | Bassani Alex | 47 | ITA | Motocorsa Racing | Ducati | 1'51.107 / 2.649 |
21 | Cavalieri Samuele | 76 | ITA | TPR Team Pedercini Racing | Kawasaki | 1'52.717 / 4.259 |
22 | Mercado Leandro | 36 | ARG | MIE Racing HONDA Team | Honda | 1'53.120 / 4.662 |
23 | Cresson Loris | 84 | BEL | TPR Team Pedercini Racing | Kawasaki | 1'53.649 / 5.191 |
Results Race 1
Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Points | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rea Jonathan | 1 | GBR | 25 | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | Kawasaki | 33'24.225 |
2 | Lowes Alex | 22 | GBR | 20 | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK | Kawasaki | 3.965 |
3 | Razgatlioglu Toprak | 54 | TUR | 16 | PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK | Yamaha | 4.008 |
4 | Redding Scott | 45 | GBR | 13 | ARUBA Racing - Ducati | Ducati | 4.242 |
5 | Davies Chaz | 7 | GBR | 11 | Team GOELEVEN | Ducati | 4.615 |
6 | Sykes Tom | 66 | GBR | 10 | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | BMW | 6.784 |
7 | Rinaldi Michael Ruben | 21 | ITA | 9 | ARUBA Racing - Ducati | Ducati | 8.345 |
8 | Haslam Leon | 91 | GBR | 8 | Team HRC | Honda | 10.187 |
9 | Gerloff Garrett | 31 | USA | 7 | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK | Yamaha | 10.326 |
10 | Locatelli Andrea | 55 | ITA | 6 | PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK | Yamaha | 17.693 |
11 | van der Mark Michael | 60 | NDL | 5 | BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team | BMW | 21.154 |
12 | Bassani Alex | 47 | ITA | 4 | Motocorsa Racing | Ducati | 27.523 |
13 | Vinales Isaac | 32 | SPA | 3 | ORELAC Racing VERDNATURA | Kawasaki | 30.963 |
14 | Nozane Kohta | 3 | JPN | 2 | GRT Yamaha WorldSBK | Yamaha | 36.769 |
15 | Mahias Lucas | 44 | FRA | 1 | Kawasaki Puccetti Racing | Kawasaki | 39.334 |
16 | Folger Jonas | 94 | GER | 0 | Bonovo MGM Racing | BMW | 41.544 |
17 | Ponsson Christophe | 23 | FRA | 0 | Alstare Yamaha | Yamaha | 43.179 |
18 | Cresson Loris | 84 | BEL | 0 | TPR Team Pedercini Racing | Kawasaki | 1'21.460 |
19 | Bautista Alvaro | 19 | SPA | 0 | Team HRC | Honda | 1 lap |
20 | Laverty Eugene | 50 | IRE | 0 | RC Squadra Corse | BMW | 5 laps |
21 | Cavalieri Samuele | 76 | ITA | 0 | TPR Team Pedercini Racing | Kawasaki | 9 laps |
22 | Mercado Leandro | 36 | ARG | 0 | MIE Racing HONDA Team | Honda | 11 laps |
23 | Rabat Tito | 53 | SPA | 0 | BARNI Racing Team | Ducati | 16 laps |
Location Information
The MotorLand Aragon road racing circuit was opened in 2009 and in 2011 it became the fifth Spanish track to host the WorldSBK™ Championship. MotorLand Aragón Ctra. TE- V- 7033 KM. 1. 44600 Alcañiz (Teruel) – Spain motorlandaragon.com
Pole Position | Right |
Length | 5.077 Km |
Corners | 17 |
Right Corners | 7 |
Left Corners | 10 |
Records
Pole Record | 1'47.840 (169,484 Km/h) N. Bulega (Ducati Panigale V4 R, 2024) |
Race Record | 1'47.935 (169,335 Km/h) T.Razgatlioglu (BMW M 1000 RR, SPRC, 2024) |
All Time Record | 1'47.840 (169,484 Km/h) N. Bulega (Ducati Panigale V4 R, 2024) |
2024 Race 1 Winner | A. Iannone (Ducati Panigale V4 R) |
2024 Superpole Race Winner | A. Bautista (Ducati Panigale V4 R) |
2024 Race 2 Winner | A. Bautista (Ducati Panigale V4 R) |