For the second round in succession the 2021 WorldSBK Championship will visit a brand-new venue for this weekend’s Round 7 with (another) outing on Spanish soil at Navarra.
The Basque region venue represents the northernmost of the six Iberian peninsula venues - Jerez, Catalunya, Aragon, Portimao and Estoril - that make up the 13 rounds of the 2021 WorldSBK series.
It follows on from the series’ predominantly well-received visit to Most in the Czech Republic, a circuit that was praised for being unusual with its fast Assen-like curves, but less so for its tricky first corner that caught out several riders.
For Navarra, the role is rather more reversed with the fastest part of the circuit occurring towards the beginning of the lap before descending into undulations that GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff likened to being like a go-kart track.
With plenty of hard-braking zones, expect to see some overtaking on the anchors, while the more technical parts of the circuit are likely to suit the Yamaha and Kawasaki, even if Jonathan Rea will hope the balance of the ZX-10RR is more to his liking amid a growing number of uncharacteristic errors at Misano, Donington Park and Most.
Still, he will do well not to repeat this rather extraordinary accident that befell his team-mate Alex Lowes in testing earlier this year when the Briton low-sided at high-speed and proceeded to do his best impression of the luge… yet walked away uninjured. Somehow.
If riders can avoid that then this is how to complete a lap at full speed courtesy of now ex-GMT 94 Yamaha WorldSSP rider Federico Caricasulo.
