Team HRC riders Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam have concluded the first of the races making up round 2 of the 2020 Superbike World Championship at Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain, with both riders closing inside the top ten.

Out on track this morning for the final practice session, Leon and Alvaro made the final adjustments to their CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP machines. The all-important Superpole followed soon afterwards in what were already fairly high temperatures. By the end of the 25-minute session, Bautista placed eighth with a best of 1’39.598, while Haslam made his quickest lap towards the end of the session, a 1’39.655 with which he closed ninth just behind his team-mate. The pair therefore earned spots on the third row of the starting grid for the afternoon’s first 20-lap SBK race.

Superbike race 1 got underway at 2pm CET in very hot conditions (air 37°C, track 59°C). Both riders made a solid start, lying sixth (Alvaro) and seventh (Leon) by the end of lap one. Battling as part of the chasing group together with another three riders, by mid-race the pair were positioned seventh and eighth, the gaps between the various groups having begun to open up. Struggling due to a lack of grip throughout most of the race, Haslam lost a little ground, eventually crossing the line in tenth position, while Bautista held seventh to the line.


Alvaro Bautista 19 - 7th

“I was hoping for better feeling during the race, similar to what I had during the practices. I’m not thinking to the race result here, I’m referring to my feeling with the bike because we’d worked well until this point of the weekend. My Superpole lap time was not so bad even though I didn’t exploit my qualifying tyre to its full potential. So we expected more from this race. Instead we struggled with front feeling and the bike’s turning, something that we had partially solved in the test in Aragon but that here, with higher temperatures and such a slippery track due to the extreme conditions, prevented us from pushing as we wanted during the race. So even though I’m not happy with the feeling I had today on the bike, on another hand I’m happy that we are very clear on where we need to work and the problem we have to solve.”

Leon Haslam 91 - 10th

“It felt like a very long race to be honest. We suffered a similar problem to Australia, which began in the opening laps and gradually got worse throughout the race. I struggled to manage the front and the grip and essentially went backwards. So we need to make a new plan for tomorrow, hopefully rectifying some of these problems. I think our pace through the opening laps can see us up with the top five so I’m confident we can take a step forward Sunday.”