The Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team is on its way to Spain’s MotorLand Aragón for round three of the 2017 FIM Superbike World Championship. Nicky Hayden and Stefan Bradl are looking forward to reuniting with the team and returning to action on board their Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 machines, in what is the first European event of the season. The race weekend action will be followed by a one-day official test at the same track on Monday.
Located in the picturesque province of Teruel, which forms the southern part of Aragon’s autonomous community, the track made its debut on the WorldSBK calendar in 2011, one year after hosting its maiden MotoGP event. Both Hayden and Bradl have a wealth of experience at the spectacular 5.077km racetrack, which is known for being one of the most complete and challenging venues in the international motorcycle racing scene – as well as a riders’ favourite.
“We’re back to Europe now and it’s time to race at Aragon, which is a great track, said Hayden. 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.”
The on-track action will kick start on Friday morning at 9:45am local time (GMT +2) for the first hour of free practice, while the two 18-lap World Superbike races will get underway at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday.
