San Juan (Argentina),
07
October
2019
|
09:58
Europe/Amsterdam

Pirelli is on the way to Argentina for the penultimate round of the FIM Superbike World Championship betting on rear solutions in soft compounds

With the WorldSBK and WorldSSP300 titles already assigned, in Argentina all eyes are focused on the WorldSSP class and the battle between Yamaha riders Randy Krummenacher, Federico Caricasulo and Jules Cluzel

Next weekend the San Juan Villicum Circuit in Argentina will host, for the second consecutive year, the penultimate round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship. To tackle the track, built in 2018 at the foot of the Andean cordillera, not far from the border with Chile, Pirelli has decided to focus on rear solutions in soft compounds for the WorldSBK class and exclusively on standard solutions for the WorldSSP category.

In this round, in fact, only the riders of the WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes will take part, while those of the WorldSSP300 will return to the fray in Qatar for the last event of 2019. With the WorldSBK and WorldSSP300 world titles already assigned, everyone's eyes will be on the WorldSSP Championship where the game is still on. The Yamaha riders Randy Krummenacher, Federico Caricasulo and Jules Cluzel will be fighting for the world title. The Swiss rider of the BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Team leads the Championship with 193 points, 10 more than his Italian teammate. The rider of the GMT94 YAMAHA team, Jules Cluzel, is more further back at 155, but is still mathematically able to fight for the title and could take advantage of the rivalry between the first two riders in the standings who in the last round of Magny-Cours both withdrew without scoring points.

The San Juan Villicum circuit bears the signature of the Argentine designer Leonardo Stella and was inaugurated last year precisely on the occasion of the first WorldSBK round in Argentina.The track is 4276 metres long and its layout includes a total of 17 curves, 7 right handers and 10 to the left with a width of 16 metres. The circuit is anti-clockwise.This is a very fast track where WorldSBK riders can easily go under the 1'40 mark and reach speeds over 300 kms/h, especially on the start/finish straight that measures more than a kilometre and between corners 7 and 8, which is by far the longest straight.El Villicum rises at the foot of the Andes at an altitude of about 650 metres above sea level and for that reason it is subject to a wide temperature range between the early hours of the morning and the late afternoon. Moreover, being built in a desert area, it is likely that in the early hours of Friday the asphalt will be found dirty, due to the sand carried by the wind, and therefore more aggressive on the tyres.

The solutions for the WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes:

To tackle the San Juan Villicum circuit, Pirelli brings a total of 2373 tyres to the track in order to meet the needs of both classes in case of dry or wet conditions. As regards dry tyres, Pirelli has decided to bet on soft rear solutions.

In the WorldSBK class pilots will be able to count on 2 front and 5 rear solutions, including SCX and Superpole® solutions. On the front, the two options in bigger 125/70 size, which have been the reference of the whole season, have been confirmed: the standard SC1 in soft compound and the development SC2 X1071 in medium compound. The choice for the rear is wider. In this round, besides the standard SC0 of the 200/65 range, there will be two softer development solutions and the SCX solution. The first is the Y0446 specification, which debuted at Imola and was also brought to Misano, Donington and Laguna Seca and which has the same structure as the standard SC0 but a compound more geared to performance in the event of particularly high asphalt temperatures. The other alternative is that represented by the X1351 specification, which debuted at Jerez and was also taken to Portimão and Magny-Cours. The SCX solution is present here in the Y0447 specification already seen in action at Jerez, Misano and Donington. Finally, in the Superpole® the pilots will be able to count on the rear solution in supersoft compound for Superpole®, in this case in the specification X0684.

For WorldSSP class pilots, Pirelli offers solely and exclusively standard tyres. At the front the standard SC1 and SC2 while at the rear the standard SC0 will be joined by the standard SC1.

The 2018 Pirelli statistics for San Juan

• Total number of tyres brought by Pirelli: 3249 

• Number of solutions (including dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class: 6 front and 6 rear 

• Number of tyres available for each WorldSBK rider: 43 front and 37 rear 

• Number of solutions for the WorldSSP class (including dry, intermediate and wet): 5 front and 5 rear 

• Number of tyres available for each WorldSSP rider: 30 front and 28 rear 

• WorldSBK Best Lap Awards both won by: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)in 1'39.175 (Race 1, 11th lap) and in 1'39.807 (Race 2, 14th lap) 

• WorldSSP Best Lap Award won by: Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing), in 1'43.818 at 17th lap 

• Temperature in Race 1: air 21° C, asphalt 38° C 

• Temperature in Race 2: air 24° C, asphalt 52° C 

• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 308.6 km/h in Race 2 by Marco Melandri (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) at 16th lap 

• Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Supercorsa SC tyres in WorldSSP race: 273.4 km/h, by Sandro Cortese (Kallio Racing) at the 7th lap.