Lecuona and Vierge exploit a wet SBK Race 1 to place a strong 6th and 7th at Magny-Cours

Team HRC completes a very wet race 1 at the Magny-Cours circuit in France with strong results, Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge effectively managing the challenging conditions to finish sixth and seventh, respectively, with Lecuona making an impressive recovery from nineteenth on the grid.

After two dry practice sessions on Friday, Saturday morning’s FP3 ran in the rain, meaning that the SBK field elected to complete limited laps, if exiting the garage at all. Lecuona and Vierge chose to sit out the session and avoid any unnecessary risks.

Superpole ran as scheduled at 11am CET. The qualifying took place on a full wet track, with conditions worsening as the session went on. Vierge was quick to get comfortable despite the evident challenges, moving into the top ten with ten minutes still on the clock. Xavi’s pace only increased as time went on, the Spaniard putting in a best of 1’53.834 to qualify a strong sixth and secure a second row start for the afternoon’s race. This marked both his and Honda’s best qualifying result of the year. Lecuona had a tougher time, struggling in the altered conditions to find the feeling that that would allow him to set an adequate time. His best reference, a 1’58.699, put him in nineteenth place on the timesheets.

With Race 1 starting on a damp track, the SBK riders opted for a wide range of tyres as they lined up at 2pm local time. Vierge, who chose slicks at both the front and rear, got away well from the second row when the lights went out. Battling for fourth through the early stages, the Spaniard elected to pit on lap four when rain began to fall and was soon back into sixth place after returning to the track. Battling hard against his closest rivals, Xavi was in fifth at the mid-race point.

Meanwhile, Lecuona, who went out with an intermediate front and a slick rear tyre, moved up to sixteenth by the end of the first lap. When the rain came on, which caused several riders to crash, Lecuona was one of the first to come into the pits and switch to rain tyres, returning to the track in twelfth place. Up into tenth by lap nine, Iker continued to work hard to make up ground to those immediately ahead, a group that included team-mate Xavi.

In the final stages of the race, Xavi and Iker were lying sixth and seventh respectively, the duo battling hard to stay upright in what had become heavy rain. The riders crossed the line in those positions, but Vierge received a pit stop infringement penalty in the shape of 6.495 seconds, which saw him demoted to final seventh position, directly behind team-mate Iker, sixth.

Team HRC can be pleased with its performance in today’s very challenging conditions, with both riders showing real grit and determination to achieve the team’s best results so far this season.