Seventh for Haslam in Race 1 at Aragón, Bautista falls while fighting for the podium

Today’s first race of round five of the 2020 Superbike World Championship, saw Leon Haslam cross the line seventh while Alvaro Bautista unfortunately crashed while fighting to retain third.

Early on in the day, the team was on track for the final free practice, a session during which both Haslam and Bautista were able to improve by more than half a second on their best times of yesterday.

In the all-important Superpole that followed, Bautista and Haslam were lying third and fifth through the opening stages on the race tyre. Later in the session riders returned to the track with the qualifying solution, a tyre that guaranteed performance for one lap only. The Spanish rider set a very fast 1’49.217 to finish in fifth place, while Haslam set a best of 1’49.332 which saw him qualify just a tenth of a second behind his team-mate in sixth position.

The Team HRC riders thus lined up on the second row of the grid for the weekend’s first race, which got started at 2pm local time. Bautista positioned fifth through the opening lap while Haslam was lying eighth. The Spaniard was able to move up into fourth early on, from where he pushed to try and catch the third-placed rider, passing him on lap seven. Alvaro found himself battling to defend third place in the later stages, but unfortunately a crash on lap fifteen put paid to all his hard work up until that point. Haslam retained eighth through the first half of the race, battling as part of a small group before moving into seventh place on lap ten. Continuing to fight and exchange places with the riders immediately around him, the British rider ultimately powered his CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP across the line in seventh position to score more important championship points.

Team HRC will be back on track tomorrow for the 10-lap Superpole race and second 18-lap Superbike race.