Solid seventh for Alvaro Bautista in race 2 at Estoril, Leon Haslam 12th

Team HRC has now concluded the second 2021 Superbike World Championship round at the Estoril Circuit in Portugal, where riders Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam scored a best of seventh and twelfth in the day’s races.

In the morning’s 10-lap Superpole race, Bautista got away well from eighteenth on the grid, quickly making up positions and gradually moving up through the field. The Spaniard was able to maintain a consistent pace, making up eight positions over the short race and crossing the line in tenth place, just missing out on the possibility to get a better grid position for race 2. Haslam held fourteenth position through the opening laps but lost a little ground mid-race, ultimately crossing the line in sixteenth place.

The second of the weekend’s 21-lap SBK races got underway at 2pm local time. Bautista was already up in eleventh place by lap two. Moving into tenth place on lap four, the Spaniard was able to find a good rhythm, continuing to make progress through the central phase of the race. Holding eighth and lapping with stronger pace than those immediately ahead of him, Alvaro moved into seventh place on lap 15, a position he held to the line to score some solid championship points. Haslam made gradual albeit slow progress during this second race. From fifteenth on the grid, he made up several positions throughout the course of the 21 laps, ultimately crossing the line in twelfth position.

Having now completed the first two championship rounds, Bautista and Haslam now place eleventh and twelfth respectively in the championship standings, with 25 and 16 points.