Round 09 #CATALANWorldSbk
SUPERPOLE & RACE 2

Today’s racing at the Barcelona-Catalunya track in Spain brought Team HRC its first podium of the 2021 Superbike World Championship season when Alvaro Bautista went from sixteenth on the initial race grid to a third-place finish in a (two-part) Superpole race in front of his home crowd! The Spaniard then rounded out his weekend with a strong fourth-place finish in the afternoon’s second Superbike race, missing out on another podium by a mere two tenths of a second.

First up today was the short Tissot Superpole race, which Bautista started from sixteenth position, based on yesterday’s qualifying results. Unlike yesterday’s action, the race took place in dry and sunny conditions. Bautista immediately made up six positions through the first turns, placing tenth by the end of lap one. The Spaniard soon found himself battling, and passing, team-mate Haslam for seventh place, but on lap three, the race was brought to a halt with a red flag following an incident involving two other riders.

The race was restarted a short time later, the distance reduced to just five laps. Bautista made a lightning start on the other hand, exploiting the rather chaotic situation through the first turns to position second. Two laps later, he found himself battling with Lowes for a podium finish, the Spaniard ultimately getting the better of the Brit to score third place. This excellent performance by Alvaro brought Team HRC its first podium of the 2021 season.

The second of the day’s races also ran in dry conditions. Third on the grid thanks to his earlier race result, Bautista lay fourth through the initial stages, but an accident towards the end of the opening lap again saw the race halted with a red flag.
The race was subsequently restarted, reduced by one lap to a distance of 19 laps. Bautista again placed fourth in the early stages. The Spaniard soon found himself battling for fifth with Redding, using all his experience to ward off the Brit’s attacks. By the mid-race point Alvaro was caught up in a thrilling three-way battle with Redding and Rea, passing the current world champion to take fifth on lap eleven. Over the final five laps, the Spaniard moved in on Locatelli immediately ahead of him, ultimately crossing the line in a close fourth place to score another 13 important championship points.

In the championship standings, Bautista is tenth with 142 points.
Team HRC will now travel straight to Jerez de la Frontera where round ten is taking place already next weekend.

Alvaro Bautista #19  

SPRC P3 –  RC2 P4

“Today I honestly had completely different feeling compared to yesterday. With much more grip, I felt that I could push and that the bike helped me in this. In the Superpole race, I made a good start and gained some positions, so when I saw the red flag, I was frustrated because I was feeling so strong. After the second start, I just tried to stay focused and not make any mistakes. Third position was a fantastic result, and a well-deserved reward for the non-stop work the team and engineers are doing. In Race 2, higher temperatures meant that the conditions worsened, and the feeling too. There was less grip, and it was also more difficult to stop the bike. I just tried to understand the track and do my best. Towards the end, I had some small issues with the brakes, maybe due to the temperature. I ran a little wide at turn one and lost contact with the podium group. I recovered but couldn’t quite get close enough to them. Anyway, I’m happy, as it has been a solid weekend. It seems that in the last few races we’ve worked out some details together, identifying a good base set-up and more consistent in terms of reducing the gap to the front. I hope we can continue this trend until the end of the season”.