Alcañiz (Spain)

The MIE Racing Honda team and its rider, Argentinian Leandro Mercado, are on site at the Motorland Aragón circuit in Spain, where the first round of the 2021 Superbike World Championship is set to play out this coming weekend.
The global pandemic still ongoing, apparently slowly starting to relent in Europe just now, means that all operations have so far continued to be strongly affected by delays and challenges of any type. The MIE Racing Honda Team only completed the officially supported Catalan pre-season test with its new rider (March 31-April 1) and will have to work hard to get going this weekend.

29-year old Mercado has a wealth of international-level experience but this is the first time he will compete with a Honda. Last year, Leandro scored a best of eleventh at the Aragón track.

The Motorland Aragón circuit was inaugurated in 2009 and has hosted the Superbikes each year since 2011. Located in the small town of Alcañiz and part of the Teruel province, the circuit lies approximately 250 km from Barcelona. It comprises a total of 17 corners, seven right-handers and 10 left-handers, and is 5.077 km in length.MIE Racing will take to the track on Friday for the weekend’s first free practice sessions, to be followed by qualifying and Superbike Race 1 on Saturday, and then the Tissot Superpole race and Superbike Race 2 on Sunday.

Motorland Aragón Track Information:

Country: Spain
Name: Motorland Aragón
Length: 5.077 km
Pole position: right
Corners: 10 left-hand, 7 right-hand

SBK RECORDS: Race lap – Rea (Kawasaki) 1’49.620 (2020-Aragon Round). Superpole – Rea (Kawasaki) 1’48.767 (2020 -Teruel Round).

2020 ARAGON ROUND SBK RESULTS:
Race 1 – 1. Redding (Ducati); 2. Davies (Ducati); 3. Rea (Kawasaki)
Superpole Race – 1. Rea (Kawasaki); 2. Redding (Ducati); 3. Van Der Mark (Yamaha)
Race 2 – 1. Rea (Kawasaki); 2. Davies (Ducati); 3. Bautista (Honda)

2021 WORLD SUPERBIKE CALENDAR
21-23 May (Spain) Aragón
28-30 May (Portugal) Estoril
11-13 June (Italy) Misano
02-04 July (UK) Donington Park
23-25 July (Holland) Assen
06-08 August (Czech Republic) Most
20–22 August (Spain) Navarra
03-05 September (France) Magny-Cours
17-19 September (Spain) Catalunya
24-26 September (Spain) Jerez
01-03 October (Portugal) Portimao
15–17 October (Argentina) San Juan Villicum
12–14 November (Indonesia) Mandalika (subject to homologation)

Private: Leandro Mercado 36

“Finally it’s race week! After a very long winter I’m very happy to start a new Championship e to be part of this project with MIE Racing Honda Team. We finalized our agreement just a few weeks ago so we actually had no time to work on it and to make test and kilometers on the bike. Having said, I hope we will have a good start to the season. We’ll give it our outmost to the growth of the project.”