Team HRC sets to work at a wet Donington

2023-08-21 09:10
The sixth round of the Superbike World Championship is now underway at the Donington Park circuit in the UK. Team HRC riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge have completed the first free practice sessions of the weekend, which ran in damp conditions in the morning and on a wet track in the afternoon.

Free practice one got underway in very cloudy conditions and with rain falling in several sectors. Lecuona and Vierge did not waste any time in getting out on track and starting to work on their set-ups with their respective technicians. Rain fell intermittently throughout the session, but both riders gradually picked up the pace as they refamiliarized themselves with the British track. Iker finished with a best of 1’28.633 which saw him place tenth, followed by team-mate Xavi, seventeenth with a 1’29.671.

The afternoon’s second free practice also began in the rain, with almost all riders electing to remain in the pits. Unfortunately, conditions didn’t improve, which meant that the riders best references mainly remained those set during FP1. Lecuona therefore finished the day in eleventh position in the combined standings, Vierge seventeenth.

Team HRC will be back in action tomorrow, on track for the final free practice followed by Superpole and the first of the weekend’s three races.





Iker Lecuona 7
P11

“It was a tricky day due to the weather conditions and I felt a little strange on the bike after last weekend’s MotoGP stint. It took me a few laps to adapt to the Superbike again this morning, and I also felt we needed to make an adjustment in terms of the bike’s balance. So even though we ran a solid FP1 in terms of lap times, we planned to make some setup changes for FP2. Unfortunately, though, we didn’t end up riding in the afternoon due to the rain, and so the work we had planned for that session is postponed until tomorrow. With any luck the weather will be better and we’ll be able to make the most of the final free practice as we prepare for Superpole and race 1.”

Iker Lecuona




Xavi Vierge 97
P17

“There’s not much to say about day one because conditions were mixed all day. Already in FP1 the rain started to fall after just two or three laps and so I didn’t want to push too much or cause the temperature of the rear tyre to drop. So I was unable to complete a constructive session despite really positive initial feeling, in that the confidence was there straight away. In FP2 it was already raining on lap one but not enough to make for a full wet session, so basically the session was not useful at all. The new asphalt seems great but, having said that, we’ll have work to do tomorrow in FP3 because we need to understand how to manage the tyre life on this new surface, so tomorrow morning will be crucial in order to prepare for race 1.”

Xavi Vierge




Free Practices Combined Results after FP2
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 Rea Jonathan 65 GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 1'27.627
2 Razgatlioglu Toprak 54 TUR PATA YAMAHA with BRIXX WorldSBK 0.012
3 Öttl Philipp 5 GER Team GOELEVEN 0.130
4 Bassani Axel 47 ITA Motocorsa Racing 0.154
5 Lowes Alex 22 GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 0.230
6 Ray Bradley 28 GBR Yamaha MotoxRacing WorldSBK Team 0.430
7 Sykes Tom 66 GBR ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team 0.481

Source: HRC

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