Team HRC on the attack at Aragón

Team HRC riders Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona have made a confident start to the tenth WorldSBK round at Motorland Aragón, with the two Spaniards rounding out Friday’s practices sixth and ninth respectively, only around five tenths of a second from the front and even closer in terms of race pace.

The first of the weekend’s practices ran in dry conditions on Friday morning. The Team HRC riders made a very determined start, with both Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona straight up into the top five in the initial stages. With Iker leading the way for a good part of this opening session, his best time – an impressive 1’49.546 – assured him of final fourth place. In the last five minutes, and having shown pace from the outset, Xavi was able to lap quicker than his team-mate, setting a 1’49.493 that projected him into third place. Having put together its best FP1 of the season so far, Team HRC set out to build on this performance during the second session.

The factory riders continued to work in the right direction during the afternoon’s FP2, another dry albeit very windy session. Lecuona once again appeared at ease around the Spanish track and was lying sixth when the session was halted with a red flag due to the tricky track conditions (too windy). Back on track a short time later, Iker made a series of interesting laps, coming within two tenths of his morning’s best but unable to quite match it.

Vierge unfortunately crashed just four minutes into the session after being hit by another rider at turn 2. Fortunately, Xavi was unhurt, but the bike sustained damage, causing the team to lose valuable time making the necessary repairs, though the subsequent red flag gave the technicians a few extra minutes. Vierge attempted to return to the track with fifteen minutes left on the clock but had to pit again after one lap to make further minor adjustments to the bike. Finally able to rejoin the action with six minutes to go, the Spaniard was able to make one lap in the high ’49s, but this was deleted due to the yellow flag.

With both Xavi and Iker having set their best times during the morning’s session, those results ensured that the duo placed sixth and ninth in Friday’s combined standings.