A positive day one for Bautista in Catalunya, Haslam focuses on setup2020-09-21 16:05The sixth round of the 2020 Superbike World Championship is now underway at the Barcelona-Catalunya track in Spain. Despite the unstable weather conditions, with heavy rain in the early afternoon, it proved to be a promising opening day for Team HRC and Spanish rider Alvaro Bautista, who placed fourth at the end of the first practice session. This morning saw the Superbike field take to the Barcelona track for the first of three free practices. During this opening session, riders Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam started work to adapt their CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP machines to what is a brand-new circuit for the WorldSBK championship. Using data collected during their earlier post-lockdown test sessions, the pair worked hard with their technicians, Haslam particularly spending more time in the garage. By the end of the first 50-minute session, Bautista had set a best of 1’42.513, placing fourth after having led the way for most of the session. Having completed very few flying laps, Haslam recorded a 1’44.315 which saw him position eighteenth. The second session was of little use in terms of lap times, heavy rainfall prior to the practice meaning that the session ran on a wet track. Both Bautista and Haslam found some good feeling with their bikes in a rain configuration, Alvaro concluding the wet practice session in a close fourth place again, but of course it was the times recorded during FP1 that prevailed at the end of day one, with Bautista and Haslam closing fourth and eighteenth respectively. Alvaro Bautista 19 4th “We’ve had a positive day. In FP1 I focused on using just one tyre, as the track is critical in terms of tyre consumption and we don’t have real references here of course. I was really happy with my feeling today and held first place for most of the morning’s session, only losing it when others put in fresh tyres at the end. The bike is giving me more feedback and I’m feeling increasingly in control. This afternoon I used the rain tyres for only the second time. At first the feedback on the wet track wasn’t great, but we made some changes to improve my feeling and pace during that session and to be honest, by the end, I was feeling quite confident also in the wet. So we have some ideas ahead of tomorrow as well as good information regarding tyre life, which I think will be key in the races.” Alvaro Bautista Leon Haslam 91 18th “It was a little tough today. We spent the morning working on the bike and so I only made a couple of flying laps. We weren’t doing too badly in the heavy rain this afternoon but as the track began to dry my feeling wasn’t as good, so we have a few things to reassess. I’m enjoying the track though and those first laps in the rain have helped build my confidence. Tomorrow we’ll use FP3 to make a few changes to try and find better feeling ahead of the Superpole and race one.” Leon Haslam Free Practices Combined Results after FP2 (afternoon wet) Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap 1 Razgatlioglu Toprak 54 TUR PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team 1'42.140 2 van der Mark Michael 60 NDL PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team 0.169 3 Gerloff Garrett 31 USA GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team 0.338 4 Bautista Alvaro 19 SPA Team HRC 0.373 5 Rea Jonathan 1 GBR Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK 0.474 6 Rinaldi Michael Ruben 21 ITA Team GOELEVEN Source: HRC Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story |
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