Spain Motorland Aragón. Preview. 29th June 01st July 2012 8th of 14 race weekends Munich/Stephanskirchen, 25th June 2012. The second half of the 2012 FIM Superbike World Championship gets underway this weekend. The eighth of 14 race weekends this year will be held from 29th June to 1st July at “Motorland Aragón”, near the Spanish town of Alcañiz. Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport spent two days testing at “Motorland Aragón” last week. The seven race weekends that made up the first half of the season saw the team, with factory riders Marco Melandri (ITA) and Leon Haslam (GBR), score two victories, claim nine podium finishes and set one fastest race lap. In the Rider’s Championship, Marco currently lies fourth with 155.5 points, while Leon is sixth with 123. Together, the pair has already scored 278.5 points for Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport this season. In the Manufacturers’ Championship, BMW is third with 197 points. Only the best result from each race counts towards this championship. At last week’s test, the team worked on the chassis, brake system and electronic set-up, in order to prepare Marco’s and Leon’s BMW S 1000 RRs for the race at the technically demanding “Motorland Aragón”. The Spanish circuit made its debut on the FIM Superbike World Championship calendar last year. Marco has good memories of the venue: he started from pole position, won one race and finished runner-up in the other. Aragón from the rider’s point of view: Marco Melandri: “For me, Aragón is one of the best tracks on the calendar, I really like it. It is very fast and smooth and we can use the power of our BMW engine on the long straight. The circuit is very technical, because it is a combination of everything. You have very slow corners, half corners, long bends, changes of direction and a long straight. And I think it is also a good track to overtake. So it has everything to produce good racing. We tested there last week and it went very well. I am looking forward to race there now. It will certainly not be an easy race for the tyres and the riders because it is going to be quite hot. But anyway: I like it. Our target now is to get back onto the podium. For the rest of the season, we have to think race by race. We need to be as close to the podium as possible and to try to get some more wins.” Leon Haslam: “Aragón is a new racetrack; last year was the first time for everyone. A lot of teams are now finding what they need on the bike and from the set up. Many teams have tested there. So did we last week and we also found good settings for this circuit, so I am looking forward again to the race. Last year it was not the best of weekends for us, Troy broke his arm and I had pretty average results. But for this time I am actually looking forward to going there. The track is very demanding; it has a lot of corners that hang on to you. It is not a circuit that suits an aggressive riding style; it is more fast and flowing. You have to be very precise with your lines and your set-up, but with these facts you have good racing. The first half of the season has been ups and downs. I already had many podiums and I should have had at least two or three wins. But it has been a very tough first half of the season, with breaking my leg, crashing in the lead, being taken whilst leading and some other little issues. We missed out on a lot of points but are still very close. So we are very confident building up to the second part of the season. We know we can win and we know we can fight for the podium every weekend. We just need to concentrate on this target.” Aragón from a technical point of view: Andrea Dosoli (Head of Race Operations): “With Aragón we are entering the second part of a season, which has seen BMW Motorrad Motorsport as one of the most competitive teams. We’ve already achieved nine podiums, including two wins, thanks to the great performances shown by both of our talented riders and the improved technical package. But it’s only now that the difficulties start. We still have a significant amount work in front of us and we must all stay very concentrated and motivated in order to be able to fight for the podium everywhere in any conditions. We’ve chosen Aragon as our selected test track mainly for its unique characteristic: it’s a bit of everything, tight corners, fast and flowing sections, a long straight, extreme weather conditions and high tyre wear. It’s very demanding for the riders especially when the tarmac temperature is over 50 degrees Celsius. After the last test we’re confident that we’ve already achieved a good base setting so we’re looking forward to Sunday’s races. Leon is very motivated after the important podium in Misano and the last test, so we all expect that he will perform well in Aragón too. Marco likes the Spanish track where he has got important results in the past. It will be the right place for him to banish the memory of the Misano races, which were not perfect.” Aragón from Pirelli’s point of view: For the eighth round of the Superbike World Championship the riders will have at their disposal as always several slick solutions, as well as intermediate and wet tyres. As regards the slick solutions, they will be able to choose among three different front and four different rear tyres. On the front there will be two SC1s and an SC2, more precisely the specifications P1280, N1159 and P773, already widely used in 2012. For the rear instead, Pirelli will take both the SC1 (P1060) and the SC2 (N1157) of reference, which will be accompanied by two further solutions: the SC1 R302, tested for the first time at Imola and used in racing both at Donington and at Miller, being well received by most riders, and the R549, a solution taken for the first time to Misano Adriatico, which is in the middle between a SC0 and a SC1. This is why Pirelli has decided to take it also to Aragón, a track that tends to have high temperatures but which, unlike Misano, has also more trying asphalt for tyres because it is more abrasive. For this reason at Aragón very soft compounds are not ideal and the aim for the tyre manufacturers is to try and find the right balance between stability and rigidity of compounds and the grip that they can express when hot. With high temperatures at Misano the R549 performed well, showing that it can be more solid and have more grip than the SC1 of reference. Background: One of the most modern motorsport centres in the world “Motorland Aragón” is situated in a sparsely populated region in the northeast of Spain, surrounded by a vast, hilly and picturesque landscape. The facility, “Ciudad del Motor de Aragón” in Spanish, was opened in 2009 and rapidly became a popular venue for international racing series. The circuit has been on the MotoGP calendar since 2010, while the FIM Superbike World Championship made its debut there last year. The track is also used all year round for testing by many motorsport teams, on two and four wheels. “Motorland Aragón” is located almost three hours by car to the west of Barcelona, near Alcañiz a city of 16,000 residents in the autonomous province of Aragón. Alcañiz enjoys a long motorsport tradition: races were regularly held on a street circuit there, the “Circuito Guadalope”, between 1965 and 2003. However, this era came to an end with the building of “Motorland Aragón”. The new facility was designed by German architect Hermann Tilke, in cooperation with British architect office Foster and Partners. As well as the racetrack itself, the complex also includes a kart circuit, a technology centre and a leisure centre. Several circuit variants and two paddocks make “Motorland Aragón” a very versatile facility. The Superbike World Championship races are held on the 5.344-kilometre variant. The track is between 12 and 15 metres wide and the longest straight is almost 1.8 kilometres long. The layout is regarded as being technically extremely demanding. Ultra-quick sections lead into fast, narrow corners, while the circuit also features combinations of turns that demand a flowing riding style. The asphalt offers a lot of grip and is very rough, which can result in tyres wearing faster in high temperatures. The challenge facing the teams is to find the right set-up to cope with all these factors. There are undulating sections, blind crests and downhill corners, which are reminiscent of Portimão in Portugal. The combination of corners seven and eight is based on the famous “Corkscrew” at Laguna Seca (USA). The key in the flowing sections is to find the right line on which to enter the next corner whilst still exiting the previous turn. Another important spot on the circuit is the final corner: the riders must accelerate early in order to take enough momentum uphill into the start/finish straight, at the end of which awaits one of many overtaking opportunities in the form of a 90-degree left-hander. At last year’s Superbike World Championship event in Aragón, current BMW Motorrad Motorsport factory rider Marco Melandri (ITA) claimed pole position, from which he went on to win race one. In the second race he set the fastest lap and finished runner-up behind winner Max Biaggi (ITA).