Testing – Motorland Aragón

Alcañiz, 20th June 2012. Stepping into the second half of the 2012 season, Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport conducted another two day test at Motorland Aragón. The race track, close to the Spanish town of Alcañiz, will host the next round of the FIM Superbike World Championship from 29th June to 1st July. During the two days, factory riders, Marco Melandri (ITA) and Leon Haslam (GBR), were joined by the team's test rider, Steve Martin (AUS). The three of them completed a total of 287 laps or 1,534 kilometres of testing. During the test, the team focused mainly on preparing Marco's and Leon's BMW S 1000 RRs for the upcoming race weekend at Motorland Aragón. On the chassis side, new parts and settings were evaluated in order to optimise the handling of the bike when turning into a corner and to reduce the chattering. As Aragón is quite a demanding track for the brakes, the team tested several solutions for the braking system. In addition, it worked on the electronic package setting. Unfortunately on the first day, the testing was hindered by continuous rain. On the second day, the weather conditions were good with Spanish sunshine and air temperatures around 30 degrees Celsius.  Marco Melandri:"Today was a good day. We have been working very hard and we almost completed our programme. Actually we missed some runs due to yesterday's rain, but we could more or less do all what we had planned. I am happy with the race rhythm. I think we found some good solutions. I don't know how the weather will be next week, but overall I am confident for the race here in Aragón. We did a good job preparing for next week." Leon Haslam:"Today we did some good work. Obviously yesterday we had bad luck with the weather, but today we managed to test nearly all the items we had on our list and get information for the race weekend. I had a small crash mid-morning, which was not so good. I went off the track to miss a 600-cc-rider and coming back I had a highside but after that we worked a lot with the other bike, tested a lot of parts and I am pretty happy. I think we are now well prepared for the race weekend. It's good that we have had this test. We could try things for the weekend and for the future so for me it is very positive." Andrea Dosoli (Head of Race Operations):"Overall, the test went positively. For sure, it was a pity that we could not fully use the first day due to the weather conditions but both crews and riders have been working very hard and we got through almost all the test items we had planned. We got important information and prepared the RRs for the next round. Overall we are happy with what we have learned and we collected important data that will certainly be helpful for the race weekend. For next week, we expect similar conditions to today with track temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius so we are happy with the test, as we could tick several boxes on our list and start to set up the bike for this track and these weather conditions."

Source: http://www.fim-live.com/en/media/news/news-detail/article/1340262407-testing-motorland-aragon/

Hugh Anderson John Anderson Kent Andersson George Andrews Luigi Anelli