Xavi Vierge and the rest of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship grid have suffered from a lack of preseason testing time due to consistently poor weather conditions over the Iberian Peninsula over the last two weeks. Rainfall leading to wet or partially wet track conditions limited testing potential across both Jerez and Portimao’s sessions. For teams like Honda HRC and Xavi Vierge, this has proved to be  a significant headache as the team desire more feedback not only on their new Ohlins suspension, but also want to build more rapport between Vierge and his new Crew Chief, Tatusya Sasaki. Despite these setbacks, Vierge has impressed so far in testing,

VIERGE REFLECTS ON PORTIMAO: #97’s views of the 2 days of testing and his Day 2 crash

Vierge finished P9 in a damp Day 2 in Portimao on account of his Turn 1 crash in which he locked up his front wheel and careened off the track, however he walked away uninjured. Prior to that, he has been enjoying a run of good form recently, earning a 1’53.666s P2 at Jerez’s rainy Day 2 and P4 in Day 1 at Portimao’s Autodromo Internacional do Algarve. These results are putting wind in Honda HRC’s sails as Vierge’s teammate and fellow Spaniard Iker Lecuona is returning from injury after suffering a broken rib in the offseason.

“Unfortunately, we did not have too much dry time here, yesterday we used a half day, but corner 4 and 13 were a river all day. We made good progress though, we brought the bike from Jerez and at the beginning I was struggling a little bit, but we made some small changes which changed how the bike felt a lot, and now it feels very good. Yesterday overall was a very positive day,” said Vierge.

He continued: “Day 2, unfortunately as soon as we went out of the box the rain started, so we decided to go flag to flag, trying out the dry settings with slick tires. It didn’t feel too bad, but in corner one I locked the front wheel, it was a super strange crash unfortunately. It was a small crash, but as you know, it is a fast track, and when its wet, you go even faster across the ground.” laughed Vierge “But it is what it is, I’m fine, I’m fit. I think days like this are the time to test things like this. I’m happy with the job done and hopefully we have more dry time in Australia in order to make the next step forward.”

MORE WORK TO COME: Vierge still has more work to do but has impressed so far on his Honda CBR1000 RR-R

Despite his and his team’s claims that the bike still is far from in its final form, Vierge has stood out in preseason testing, earning P2 in Jerez’s Day 2 and P7 in Portimao’s Day 1, the two sessions in which he ran the most laps. Despite these strong showings, the Honda HRC and their rider believe that they still have more they can get out of their bike, setting up Vierge and his teammate Iker Lecuona as a pair of dark horse candidates in Phillip Island.

 On what’s to come for #97 and Honda HRC, Vierge said “We will continue with the work, unfortunately we had many plans for these four days of testing that we couldn’t do, so we will try to get as much done as we can, we will focus on the electronics to try to find the setup. We will be moving to different track so we will see how the bike is working there but yeah, really looking forward to continuing our progress. I feel good, of course winter tests are winter tests, even these first two days in Australia are winter tests so the real championship will start on the race weekend but yeah, we will just need to focus on ourselves and make progress in the right direction.”

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