Pirelli is on the way to Argentina for the penultimate round of the FIM Superbike World Championship betting on standard solutions
The Motul Argentinean Round could be the first real match point of one of the most unexpected and exciting seasons of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship
Next weekend the San Juan Villicum Circuit in Argentina will host 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 exclusively on standard solutions for WorldSBK and WorldSSP, the two classes that will lit up the action starting from this Friday.
One of the most unexpected and exciting seasons of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is now coming to an end. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1) will be on the grid of the Circuito San Juan Villicum with 24 points advantage on reigning World Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) and the Motul Argentinean Round could represent the first and crucial match-point of the season. Third position in the standings for Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R), only 54 points behind Razgatlioglu.
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 2574 tyres to the track in order to meet the needs of both classes in case of dry or wet conditions, and that will exclusively be solutions from the standard range.
In the WorldSBK class pilots will be able to count on 2 front and 2 rear slick solutions. On the front, the standard SC1 in soft compound and the standard SC2 in medium compound are confirmed. Regarding the choice of rear tyre, for this round Pirelli will focus on soft solutions with the standard SCX in super soft compound and the standard SC0 in soft compound available. Also in Argentina, riders will have available the qualifying solution in Y0449 specification, a spec used with success since Aragón and enabler of several new circuit records this year.
Also for the WorldSSP riders, Pirelli offers exclusively standard tyres. At the front the standard SC1 and SC2 while at the rear the standard SCX will be joined by the standard SC0 and SC1.
In case of bad weather, Pirelli makes available to the riders of both classes intermediates and Rain solutions.
More details on the race solutions for WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes are available in the technical sheets attached to this press release.
The 2019 Pirelli statistics for San Juan
- Total number of tyres brought by Pirelli: 2373
- Number of solutions (including dry, intermediate and wet) for the WorldSBK class: 4 front and 8 rear
- Number of tyres available for each WorldSBK rider: 66, 29 front and 37 rear
- Number of solutions for the WorldSSP class (including dry, intermediate and wet): 4 front and 4 rear
- Number of tyres available for each WorldSSP rider: 21 front and 21 rear
- WorldSBK Best Lap Awards both won by: Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) in 1'40.919 (Race 1, lap 10) and Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) in 1'38.034 (Race 2, lap 13)
- WorldSSP Best Lap Award won by: Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-6R) in 1'42.606 on lap 10
- Temperature in Race 1: air 31° C, asphalt 49° C
- Temperature in Race 2: air 21° C, asphalt 44° C
- Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Superbike tyres: 313 km/h, by Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) on lap 5 of the Tissot Superpole Race
- Maximum race speed reached by Pirelli DIABLO™ Supercorsa SC tyres in WorldSSP race: 271,4 km/h by Isaac Viñales (Kallio Racing / Yamaha YZF R6) on lap 13