Team HRC quietly confident as it lands in France
A little over three weeks since competing in Portimão, Team HRC moves on to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France, as the squad prepares for this weekend’s eighth championship round.
Riders Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona followed up the latest Portuguese round at Portimão with a test session at the Estoril Circuit. Both the race weekend and testing allowed the factory riders and their respective teams to make further progress and assess a series of new solutions. Having continued with their training in the run up to this eighth round, Xavi and Iker are feeling fairly confident as they make final preparations for Friday’s opening sessions. The Team HRC riders had an admittedly tough time at Magny-Cours in 2023 and are hoping that recent developments will allow them to improve on their previous performance at the French track.
The Magny-Cours track was inaugurated in 1960 and staged its first racing event in 1961. The facility has since hosted both F1 and the Bol D’or, and has long featured on the Superbike calendar, having first welcomed the production-derived championship in 2003. The track, which runs in a clockwise direction and is made up of seventeen turns, currently measures 4.411 kilometres. Located close to the towns of Magny-Cours and Nevers in the Burgundy region of France, the variable weather conditions have sometimes been known to complicate race weekends.
Weekend schedule (Central Europe Time):
Friday
10.20 – 11.05 – SBK Free Practice 1
15.00 – 15.45 – SBK Free Practice 2
Saturday
9.00 – 9.20 – SBK Free Practice 3
11.00 – 11.15 – Superpole
14.00 – SBK Race 1
Sunday
9.00 – 9.10 – SBK Warm-up
11.00 – Superpole race
15.30 – SBK Race 2
Xavi Vierge 97
We arrive at Magny-Cours after a short summer break, which allowed us to recharge our batteries ahead of a very busy period. This break was particularly useful for me as it allowed my arm to fully recover, and now I'm looking forward to getting back into action. I feel we've made some improvements lately, and so we want to keep the momentum going now. It's true that Magny-Cours is not an easy track for our bike, but I personally like it a lot, so I will try to give it my all to start at least as well as we finished at Portimão.
Iker Lecuona 7
Magny-Cours is always a big challenge for us, probably one of the hardest tracks of the season. Having said that, during the first half of the season, some of the tracks that we consider difficult have turned out to be fine, so this one is also something of a question mark for us. Based on the facts, we've worked hard in past weeks and, personally speaking, I have improved my understanding with my crew chief, and we now have a better grasp of some of the bike's behavior. When we want to try and change something to improve my feeling, we are almost always able to make the perfect choices together. So overall, I feel good and happy, and now we'll see if we can maintain our performance at Magny-Cours.
Location Information
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours Technopole – 58470 Magny-Cours – France Magny Cours
| POLE POSITION | RIGHT |
| LENGTH | 4.411 Km |
| CORNERS | 17 |
| RIGHT CORNERS | 9 |
| LEFT CORNERS | 8 |
Records
| Pole Record | 1'35.453 (166,360 Km/h) G.Gerloff (BMW M1000 RR 2023) |
| Race Record | 1'36.084 (165,268 Km/h) A.Bautista (SPRC) (Ducati V4R 2023) |
| All Time Record | 1'35.453 (166,360 Km/h) G.Gerloff (BMW M1000 RR 2023) |
| 2024 Race 1 Winner | M.Van Der Mark (BMW M1000 RR) |
| 2024 Superpole Race Winner | N.Bulega(Ducati V4R) |
| 2024 Race 2 Winner | N.Bulega(Ducati V4R) |
