MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship’s competitive track action resumed with the Pirelli Spanish Round with the paddock being greeted by scorching temperatures at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto. Spanish rider Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) believes the sweltering temperatures, with the track temperature exceeding 60°c throughout Race 1 and Race 2, did not help Honda during the weekend.

Bautista finished seventh in Race 1, ten seconds down on race winner Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) before finishing eighth in Race 2, 17 seconds down on Redding this time. In the Tissot Superpole Race, Bautista finished in tenth place behind his Team HRC teammate Leon Haslam; the only race the British rider finished ahead of Bautista across the Spanish Round.

Discussing the weekend, Bautista said: “Since the last test my feeling on the bike has improved and on Friday it was fairly easy to achieve the best pace we can obtain at this stage. From that point on though, we couldn’t improve further and the extreme conditions we’ve seen here at Jerez didn’t help. Having said that, we have been working a lot over the weekend, trying many set-ups for the bike and all this information will help us to continue the work we are doing.

“Both Leon and I are going in the same direction and are giving similar feedback and that is positive because it means we have a clear idea of what we need. Obviously, I would have preferred to be further down this road already but at the moment this is the situation and we have to carry on with energy and positivity. Honda and HRC are working well and I think it is just a matter of time.”

With just a week between the Pirelli Spanish Rounds and the MOTUL Portuguese Rounds, Bautista will be hoping the data collected at Jerez will help Team HRC and the setup of the Honda CBR1000RR-R to improve the race pace of the bike and help the team gain time and positions in what is a very competitive Championship.

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