Team HRC has completed the fifth Superbike World Championship round at the Assen TT Circuit with Alvaro Bautista crossing the line fifth in race 2, to score his strongest result of the season to date. Leon Haslam finished the day’s races in twelfth and tenth place.

The 10-lap Tissot Superpole race got underway at 11.00 am local time. Bautista made a strong start and was lying sixth before a crash unfortunately put paid to his plans towards the end of lap one. Haslam was lying twelfth through the opening stages and ran a steady albeit rather solitary race. Unable to make up further positions, the Brit crossed the line twelfth.

Lining up for race 2 later in the afternoon, the HRC riders were lying ninth (Bautista) and twelfth (Haslam) through the first turns. Both Team HRC riders gained a position in the early stages, Bautista going on to pass both Lowes and Van der Mark to place sixth by lap nine. The Spaniard was able to lap quite fast and consistently to get past Rinaldi on lap fifteen and move into fifth place. He kept gaining ground on Davies, reducing the gap from 2.549 to 0.889 seconds before crossing the line to secure his best result of the season so far. Haslam worked hard to catch those immediately ahead of him but was only able to make up one more position throughout the course of the race, rounding out the Dutch weekend with a tenth-place finish.

Bautista now places eleventh in the championship standings with 68 points, Haslam lies thirteenth with a tally of 55. Team HRC will be back in action during the sixth WorldSBK round at the Most Circuit in the Czech Republic over the weekend of 6-8 August.

Alvaro Bautista 19

SPRC P18 RC2 P5

“It has been a challenging weekend for us with two crashes in the first two races, something that quite annoys me honestly, because I think that our performance in those races could have been similar to what we did in race 2. For now, when I try to ride more naturally, I fall. Having said that, we finished the weekend with a positive result, a hard-fought top five, with some nice passes, and I think that this stems from the work we are doing. During the weekend we improved a lot on the electronics side, especially on the lower area of the throttle which gives me more confidence now. Maybe it’s not so apparent yet, but I hope it’s just a starting point for the upcoming races.”

Leon Haslam 91

SPRC P12 RC2 P10

“In the Superpole race, a rider caused me to lose many positions through the first turn. It was a difficult race and we struggled with both the front of the bike and power delivery too. In the second race, I made a good start but then Toprak crashed and I had to avoid him, which meant I lost ground again. I felt like I had good rhythm through the first part of the race anyway, but then from about lap ten I started to lose a lot of time, more than one second per lap. Overall, it’s been a tough weekend and I’m left frustrated as I expected top five results at this circuit.”

WorldSBK 2021
Race Round 05   Netherlands

Results Tissot Superpole Race

Sunny
Humidity
77%
Track Temp
30°C
Air Temp
22°C
Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Rea Jonathan 1 GBR 12 Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 15'54.593
2 Rinaldi Michael Ruben 21 ITA 9 ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 3.542
3 Razgatlioglu Toprak 54 TUR 7 PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK Yamaha 3.600
4 Locatelli Andrea 55 ITA 6 PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK Yamaha 4.343
5 Redding Scott 45 GBR 5 ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 4.501
6 Lowes Alex 22 GBR 4 Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 5.215
7 Sykes Tom 66 GBR 3 BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW 8.010
8 Gerloff Garrett 31 USA 2 GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha 9.126
9 Davies Chaz 7 GBR 1 Team GOELEVEN Ducati 11.891
10 Bassani Alex 47 ITA 0 Motocorsa Racing Ducati 12.103
11 Rabat Tito 53 SPA 0 BARNI Racing Team Ducati 13.553
12 Haslam Leon 91 GBR 0 Team HRC Honda 15.585
13 Vinales Isaac 32 SPA 0 ORELAC Racing VERDNATURA Kawasaki 20.175
14 Mercado Leandro 36 ARG 0 MIE Racing HONDA Team Honda 23.075
15 Nozane Kohta 3 JPN 0 GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha 23.130
16 Mantovani Andrea 9 ITA 0 Vince64 Kawasaki 28.596
17 Cresson Loris 84 BEL 0 TPR Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki 43.204
18 Bautista Alvaro 19 SPA 0 Team HRC Honda 1'08.267
19 van der Mark Michael 60 NDL DNF BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW
WorldSBK 2021
Race Round 05   Netherlands

Results Race 2

Dry
Humidity
74%
Track Temp
31°C
Air Temp
22°C
Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 Rea Jonathan 1 GBR 25 Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 33'27.685
2 Redding Scott 45 GBR 20 ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 1.605
3 Locatelli Andrea 55 ITA 16 PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK Yamaha 3.431
4 Davies Chaz 7 GBR 13 Team GOELEVEN Ducati 8.695
5 Bautista Alvaro 19 SPA 11 Team HRC Honda 9.584
6 van der Mark Michael 60 NDL 10 BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW 12.691
7 Lowes Alex 22 GBR 9 Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK Kawasaki 12.992
8 Rinaldi Michael Ruben 21 ITA 8 ARUBA Racing - Ducati Ducati 13.752
9 Bassani Alex 47 ITA 7 Motocorsa Racing Ducati 19.087
10 Haslam Leon 91 GBR 6 Team HRC Honda 19.629
11 Rabat Tito 53 SPA 5 BARNI Racing Team Ducati 20.974
12 Nozane Kohta 3 JPN 4 GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha 34.615
13 Mercado Leandro 36 ARG 3 MIE Racing HONDA Team Honda 35.640
14 Vinales Isaac 32 SPA 2 ORELAC Racing VERDNATURA Kawasaki 38.917
15 Sykes Tom 66 GBR 1 BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW 47.840
16 Mantovani Andrea 9 ITA 0 Vince64 Kawasaki 56.387
17 Cresson Loris 84 BEL 0 TPR Team Pedercini Racing Kawasaki 1'09.598
18 Gerloff Garrett 31 USA 0 GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Yamaha 9 Laps
19 Razgatlioglu Toprak 54 TUR DNF PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK Yamaha
Location Information

“The Cathedral” of motorcycle racing as it is known colloquially, the TT Circuit Assen has been hosting WorldSBK races since 1992, and celebrated its 25thanniversary as a Superbike venue in 2016. TT Circuit Assen

Pole Position Left
Length 4.542 Km
Corners 18
Right Corners 12
Left Corners 6

Records

Pole Record 1'32.934 (175,944 Km/h) T.Razgatlioglu (Yamaha YZF R1, 2022)
Race Record 1'33.620 (174,65 Km/h) A. Bautista (Ducati V4, 2022 SPR)
All Time Record 1'32.934 (174,87 Km/h) T.Razgatlioglu (Yamaha YZF R1, 2022)
2023 Race 1 Winner A. Bautista (Ducati V4)
2023 Superpole Race Winner A. Bautista (Ducati V4)
2023 Race 2 Winner A. Bautista (Ducati V4)