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There are many stories unfolding in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto and during Free Practice 2, key figures from Kawasaki, Ducati and Pirelli discussed some of the key themes that could play out throughout the Motul Spanish Round and towards the end of the campaign with plenty still up for grabs in the closing stretch of the season.

Ducati came into the Spanish Round full of confidence after a double win in Catalunya, with Aruba.it Racing – Ducati duo Scott Redding and Michael Ruben Rinaldi taking a win each last time out, in both wet and dry conditions. Technical Director of Ducati Corse WorldSBK, Marco Zambenedetti, praised Ducati’s performance and the knowledge gained from the Catalunya weekend.

Zambenedetti said during FP2: “It’s important this result because it confirmed the viability of the team to setup the bike in wet and dry conditions for different riders. We finally have the knowledge after the last two or three years of how to set the bike up to have the best performance in all conditions. We were very happy, but we need to keep working but others are very competitive. We must stay concentrated and keep working.

Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) is nursing a wrist injury following a Race 1 crash at Catalunya with the British rider completing only six timed laps during Free Practice 1 before adding another 16 to his total during the afternoon Free Practice 2. Guim Roda, Team Manager at KRT, explained the plan for Lowes on Friday as they looked to manage the injury.

Roda explained: “We understood last week the injury on the wrist so we accept it is an extra difficulty he will have here this weekend. The first thing we were willing to check was his performance on the bike and we saw that it’s quite good so he can ride fast. The second question we needed to understand was how long he could go fast for because he is still not close to recovery, so he needs more days to recover 100% well. We need to check a little bit more the distance he can go fast for. We will know more information in this session and then we will see what the next steps are. The fewer laps you have to do while injured, the better. We just need to check how the wrist responds to more laps and see the next steps.”

Tyres, and tyre choices, have played a critical role throughout the 2021 campaign with Pirelli opting to bring development tyres to Jerez for both the front and rear tyres and in Free Practice 2, Pirelli’s Moto Racing Director, Giorgio Barbier, explained the thought process that goes into the development solutions.

Discussing the front development solutions, Barbier said: “The riders are just, at the moment, telling us what they’d like to have from the front. A strong tyre into the corner but when they release the brakes, a little bit more grip than usual. This is something we would like to see tomorrow, in higher temperatures.”

For the rear tyres, the development SC0 solution combines the standard SC0 tyre’s compound with the structure of the SCX. Explaining this, Barbier said: “We have to understand with higher temperatures. At present, for sure, this is an SC0 basis. It has less grip than the 557 but the stability and the drive grip might be very good. Someone already told us these things. Let’s wait to see when it is hotter.”

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