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Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team are heading to MotorLand Aragon with anticipation on their Honda CRB1000RR Fireblade SP2 machines, as they look to improve on their 2017 pace following some solid top ten results in Thailand last time out.

Heading to the Pirelli Aragon Round, Nicky Hayden is looking forward to some technical challenges around the 5.077km circuit. Focusing strongly on braking, the American anticipates a tough start to the weekend but he will hope to make some strong improvements on his new machine. Hayden secured a podium in MotoGP™ around MotorLand in 2010, so he has a solid history around the circuit.

After a tough race weekend at the Spanish circuit last season – with one top six and one retirement – Hayden explains his thoughts ahead of the weekend: “We’re back to Europe now and Aragon is a great track: it’s a mix of everything, but probably the most technical challenge is represented by the blind entry of some corners and especially the ‘Corkscrew’, for which it is crucial to get the braking markers right. For the rest, I’d say it’s a circuit where tyre wear is a bit more critical in comparison to other venues. It obviously hasn’t been the best start of the season for us and the bike have arrived to Aragon straight from Thailand, so the team did not have a real chance to work on it during the break. We don’t expect an easy weekend but we’ll do our best to take advantage of the strengths of the bike and work hard together, trying to improve our performance from the first two rounds.”

German team-mate Stefan Bradl has an important weekend ahead, as MotorLand Aragon is one of his most favoured circuits. Around a circuit he feels he has a strong pace, Bradl is hopeful he can make some strong steps on board his new machine. With some strong results in the past in Spain, the former MotoGP™ rider will bring a lot of knowledge with him.

Bradl explains: “The Aragon round is a very important one for me, because it’s the first European event of the season and I am looking forward to racing on a track that I really like a lot. I think we can improve on the results of the first two rounds because I think it’s a circuit that better suits the package we have at the moment. I really hope we can make a step forward and get closer to the front of the field, in order to challenge for some good results there. The Monday test makes this event even more important for us, in order to keep moving in the right direction for the central part of the season.”

WorldSBK action kicks off with Free Practise One at 9:45am, and you can keep up with the Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team’s progress on WorldSBK.com with the Video Pass.