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

Race 1 - DNF

“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

Race 1 - P8

“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.”

WorldSBK 2021
Race Round 01   Aragon

Results Tissot Superpole

Sunny
Humidity
48%
Track Temp
26°C
Air Temp
16°C
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
WorldSBK 2021
Race Round 01   Aragon

Results Race 1

Sunny
Humidity
41%
Track Temp
38°C
Air Temp
20°C
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 1'47.973 (169,276) J.Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 2023)
Race Record 1'49.028 (167,638 Km/h) J.Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 2023) SPRC
All Time Record 1'47.973 (169,276) J.Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR, 2023)
2023 Race 1 Winner M. Rinaldi (Ducati Panigale V4 R)
2023 Superpole Race Winner A. Bautista (Ducati Panigale V4 R)
2023 Race 2 Winner A. Bautista (Ducati Panigale V4 R)