2023-08-29 20:56:22
The Motorland Aragón Circuit has hosted this Tuesday the first of the two private test days of the Superbike World Championship in which all the factories of the championship participate with the exception of Yamaha, which has chosen to save its training days for another occasion.
The fastest at the end of the last batch of the afternoon was Álvaro Bautista’s teammate, Michael Rinaldifocused on testing some electronic updates on his Panigale V4R in addition to advancing the settings for the next Aragonese World Superbike event scheduled for September 23 and 24. The Italian lowered the door of his box with 68 accumulated laps and a best time of 1’50.388far from the track record that Toprak Razgatlioglu set last year (1’48.267).
The reigning WorldSBK champion and championship leader, Álvaro Bautista, took the day easy; The one from Talavera de la Reina has done a lot, 90 laps in total, but without forcing, and that has been reflected in his best lap on Tuesday, a 1’51.105 that left him eight tenths behind his box neighbor.
xavi virgin It has also been among the fastest; The Honda rider completed 74 laps today at the Motorland Aragón track to finish second (1’50.619), followed by the Ducati satellite rider, Daniel Petrucciwhich placed his Pangigale V4 R from the Barni Spark Racing Team in third with a personal best time of 1’50.700.
The big surprise of the day was starring Adrián Huertas. The Spanish rider materialized the prize that Kawasaki owed him for his Supersport 300 title achieved in 2021 and he was enjoying his first test with a World Superbike motorcycle, specifically with the Ninja ZX-10 RR of the official KRT team.
Huertas, who this year is completing his second year in the Supersport World Championship with the MTM Kawasaki, has shown himself to be very fast throughout the 79 laps he has completed on Tuesday, boasting a great time of 1’51.044 that placed Adrián sixth in the final classification of the day, just seven tenths off the reference time set by Rinaldi.
“It’s been amazing” Huertas summed up Tuesday afternoon after putting half a second behind the official Kawasaki tester, Florian Marino, who has also been riding in Alcañiz. “I want to thank Kawasaki for the opportunity they have given me because it has been a very useful test to understand how to ride the bike.It was the first time I got on a 1000cc motorcycle. Is incredible. It has a lot of power and I already felt very good. In general I am happy with the day. I expected to be fast because I consider myself a top rider, but I didn’t expect, on the first day in a test with the big bike, to be doing this.”
Huertas has made it clear that this test does not change his plans for the future, focused on continuing to compete for another year in Supersport to gain more experience and prepare well for his future jump to Superbikes :”This test can be really useful for WorldSSP. Besides, it is an extra motivation and I think that when I go to Magny-Cours, I will be able to fight for the victory. I’m not thinking of moving up to WorldSBK in 2024. I’m just focused on WorldSSP. I have enjoyed the test, it has been a reward for winning the WorldSSP300 title and for the improvement I am making in WorldSSP.”
Aragón will open its track again tomorrow, Wednesday, with a new test day, this time with the presence of Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes in the Kawasaki Racing Team box.
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Results Aragon Test Day 1 (Top 6)
1. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 1:50.388s, 68 laps
2. Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) 1’50.619s, 74 laps
3. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) 1’50.700s, 51 vueltas
4. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) 1’50.950s, 48 laps
5. Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) 1’51.031s, 80 laps
6. Adrian Huertas (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 1’51.044s, 79 laps
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