Xavi Vierge looks to the past for Portimao WorldSBK progress

This weekend’s World Superbike test in Portimao offered much different conditions on the opening day to what the series faced at the opening round in Australia, requiring a rethink for Xavi Vierge and Honda.

Vierge, who ended the day fourth-fastest, said that there were adjustments to make in the morning, both because of what were wet conditions after overnight rain and because of the difference in conditions between Portugal and Australia.

“We were expecting dry time today, but unfortunately it was quite wet all morning,” Vierge told WolrdSBK.com.

“Of course this changed our plan because we didn’t have enough track time to test everything, but we were able to test the most important things like the electronics.

“At the start, the feeling was not perfect; coming from Australia, the temperatures are much lower and it’s a very different track, so we needed to adapt the bike setup a bit.

“After a few pit exits I started to feel good, and it allowed us to focus on the test items we wanted to try.”

Vierge revealed that a reversion to a setting he had used in the past was a key to unlocking some additional pace from the Fireblade.

“We found something that we had been working on in the past, and let’s say we recovered it, and it looks like it was helping us a lot, as soon as we started working on it we improved our pace a lot.”

He added: “I was happy, because I think even with the less than ideal conditions we were fast with the race tire. We need to stay grounded because, as we know, those low temperatures are always helpful to us, and we need to see if we are still as competitive in higher temperatures.

“For the moment, today was really positive, it feels really nice to be fast and competitive, so I am happy with that and a big thank you to the team for their work.”