Motorland Aragón is the stage for the 2021 Superbike World Championship opening round, one on which Team HRC Alvaro Bautista showed podium potential today. While Leon Haslam scored some solid points, finishing race 1 in eighth place.
The morning’s final practice allowed the riders to refine the set-up of their CBR1000RR-R FIREBLADE. And make some final adjustments with their technicians ahead of the qualifying session.
Team HRC
Bautista improved on his best of yesterday by eight tenths (1’50.085) to finish fifth, while Haslam’s fastest lap, a 1’50.916, saw him close the session in twelfth place.
The Superpole ran in more excellent conditions (16°C) concerning yesterday’s sessions. And both Bautista and Haslam completed two fast laps apiece during the now shortened 15-minute session.
A best-of 1’49.246 for the Brit saw him close seventh. While the Spaniard finished in the eighth position with the fastest time of 1’49.338. References that put both riders on the third row of the grid for the weekend’s first race.
The season’s opening race, contested over 18 laps, got underway at 2 pm (CEST).
The Team HRC riders retained their positions off the line, lying eighth (Haslam) and ninth (Bautista) through the first turns.
The pair lapped with a similar pace through the opening stages, swapping places and working to catch Sykes immediately ahead of them.
Picking up the pace, Bautista passed the BMW rider on lap five to move into the seventh position.
By the mid-race point, the Spaniard was the quickest rider on track, giving Gerloff the sixth position. He continued to lap with a solid rhythm, moving ever closer to a possible podium finish.
Unfortunately, these hopes were dashed when the Spaniard crashed on the last lap, at turn 2, the incident resulting from an electric problem.
Haslam lost a little ground towards the mid-race point, lying tenth, but was able to make up two positions in the final stages to cross line eight
via HRC
