Straight on the back of the eighth WorldSBK championship round at Magny-Cours in France, Team HRC has completed a productive one and a half day test session at Motorland Aragón in Spain.

Riders Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona, who enjoyed one of their strongest showings of the season at last weekend’s Magny-Cours round, are keen to continue in this vein during the final part of the 2024 season. During the tests, which ran on Wednesday 11 and the morning of Thursday 12 September, the two Spaniards worked in preparation for the remainder of the season, and for the Aragón round, set to play out later this month (27-29 September).

Enjoying dry albeit fairly windy conditions on both days, the riders took to the track between 9am and 1pm and again from 2pm to 6pm on day 1 and from around 10 am to 1 pm on day 2, working with their technicians to conduct a series of tests relating to the general setup with a particular focus on suspension. The Spanish track was recently resurfaced, which means that the riders also had chance to understand the abrasiveness of the new asphalt ahead of this season’s Aragón race weekend.

Vierge and Lecuona were able to successfully complete their work plan, the duo generally pleased with the outcome of the test. Team HRC now readies itself for WorldSBK round nine, taking place on 20-22 September at the Cremona Circuit in Italy, a new addition to the production-derived calendar for the 2024 season.

Xavi Vierge 97

"We’ve finished this Aragón test with good feelings. It was good to come here because with the new asphalt, everything has changed, and so it was useful to work on that aspect. There was a lot of grip on the racing line, so we had to adapt to that. We also worked on bike setup and some different aspects relating to the suspension. There were some small positives, and we were able to maintain a satisfactory race pace throughout the session. I'm happy with that, and now we move to Cremona, a track at which we’ve already had the opportunity to test, which was important considering it’s a new track on the calendar. Let’s see if we can confirm the progress we’ve made lately."

Iker Lecuona 7

“We rode for one and a half days rather than two, both because we were able to complete our work plan and because conditions are meant to be even windier this afternoon. We mainly used the track time to learn the new tarmac, as the feeling is quite different now that they’ve resurfaced the track. It now has a lot of grip but is at the same time quite aggressive on the tyres. This is something we will need to manage when we come back here for the races, because after five or six laps the tyre drop-off is very noticeable. Besides that, we kept working on the general setup of the bike, especially the suspension. Showa brought us some new things and ideas to try, and we found something that we now plan to use the next week. As for my right arm, I felt some fatigue at the start of the test, but overall, I must say it didn’t give me problems. Probably a combination of some trekking with walking poles and some struggles with the bike's handling during FP1 in Magny-Cours caused me issues last weekend, but, fingers crossed, I hope to be fully okay at Cremona next week.”

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)