Strong pace, ‘experimental parts’ and a crash: Honda’s Friday explained
Team HRC showed good pace on Friday in both practice sessions with both Bautista and Haslam inside the top six in the combined classification
Friday at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto proved to be a strong day for Team HRC duo Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista with the British rider in fourth place in the combined classification in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship with teammate Bautista in sixth place, despite a high-speed crash for Bautista in the latter stages of the afternoon FP2 session.
Haslam was quick from the off in Free Practice 1 and ended up inside the top five in the first 45-minute session before backing that up with third in Free Practice 2, posting a best time of 1’40.328s to finish fourth in the combined classification, seventh tenths away from Jonathan Rea’s (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) pacesetting time of 1’39.671s.
Discussing his Friday, which included trying some ‘experimental parts’, Haslam said: “We had a good FP1, I felt quite consistent and we kept the same tyre for the whole session. In the afternoon, we were trying a few experimental items which kind of ruined the progression to set up for racing. We were quite quick at the start of the session with the FP1 set up and at the end it was okay. We didn’t put a new tyre in right at the end so, we were third quickest this afternoon, but tomorrow is looking very different with the weather, so we have to wait and see.”
Bautista had a trickier Free Practice 1 with 12th place, over one second back from Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) who set in the pace in the morning during the Motul Spanish Round. He responded in FP2 with fifth place and a best time of 1’40.349s, just 0.021s away from his teammate, although did have a high-speed crash at Turn 11 in the last 10 minutes of Free Practice 2.
Explaining his entire day, with tyre choices critical after Pirelli brought different solutions to Jerez, Bautista said: “In the morning, I tried different solutions that Pirelli brought here, especially with the rear compound. I didn’t feel so comfortable, I was missing a lot of rear grip. I wasn’t really happy in the morning. In the afternoon, I used the new SCX tyre that we raced with in Barcelona and I felt definitely much better. In the afternoon, we tried the new front solutions. I’m happy because the difference is not too big but, for me, in some corners especially with some brakes on, I felt better stopping and better to keep the line. I felt quite strong, I had quite good pace. In the end, because I like the new front tyre and we don’t have enough quantity for the whole weekend, I decided to keep the front, put the new rear on and I felt the bike pushing me to the front. I lost the direction and I crashed. Fortunately, I’m physically okay bit the crash was in very, very fast place.”
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