WorldSBK: Championship lead finally changes as Razgatlioglu dominates Donington

Toprak Razgatlioglu has finally knocked Nicolo Bulega off the top of the World Superbikes championship lead in 2025 after a comfortable treble victory around Donington Park – a circuit he has now secured 12 victories at – as his Ducati nemesis had to settle for consecutive runner-up spots.

 

Tissot Superpole Race

Alex Lowes was declared unfit for Sunday’s action after his crash from the lead yesterday in Race 1.  In the slightly cooler conditions, the World Superbikes grid was hoping for a much cleaner race than yesterdays and things immediately went smoother as they all made it through turn 1 safely.

Once again, Jonathan Rea shot through from the 2^nd row of the grid to take 2^nd place behind polesitter Razgatliolgu into Redgate on lap 1.  Bulega slid to 4^th while Andrea Locatelli ran in 3^rd.

The only casualty on the 1^st lap was Michael van der Mark, whose miserable season continues.  By the 2^nd lap, Locatelli was back down to 5^th as Bulega moved ahead to challenge Rea for 2^nd and Sam Lowes then passed him for 4^th.

The battle between Rea and Bulega over allowed Razgatlioglu to stretch his lead out front as the Yamaha and Ducati ran the latter half of the Donington Park lap side-by-side on the 2^nd lap.   The entertaining battle came to an end as Bulega prevailed and it became clear that Rea’s ultimate pace was not enough for him to secure a podium.

Another great piece of racing occurred between Ryan Vickers and Yari Montella.  The latter made a mistake that lost him positions and the former had enough pace to fight within the crucial top-9 positions in the Tissot Superpole Race – which sets the grid for Race 2.

Alvaro Bautista – like Sam Lowes – was making up for lost time from the previous day’s crash.  The Ducati rider passed Locatelli for 4^th and secured a much better grid spot for Race 2 later in the day.

Behind the top 6 and starting Race 2 where they finished were Danilo Petrucci, Garrett Gerloff and Andrea Iannone.  It seemed as if Vickers would be in the top 9, but on the 8^th out of 10 laps he ran wide at the final corner.

Iker Lecuona and Scott Redding both had technical issues that forced them out near the end while Locatelli made it past his teammate Rea at the chicane on the last lap.  Razgatlioglu’s 11^th win around Donington Park cut the gap to Bulega to just 1 point ahead of the full distance race in the afternoon where he looked all set to snatch the lead in the championship.

Tissot Superpole Race Results

Race 2

For the third time this weekend, Razgatlioglu made the hole shot to Redgate as Bulega suffered another sluggish getaway.  It was Sam Lowes, fresh from a home podium in the Tissot Superpole Race, who inherited 2^nd place at the start.

Bulega again fell as low as 5^th and had to repass Locatelli, then set about his teammate Bautista who had also passed him in the early stages.  The Ducati teammates fight over 3^rd then became a battle over 2^nd as Sam Lowes crashed out at high speed at the start of lap 4 but thankfully without any obvious injuries like his brother Alex had a day earlier.

After Bulega made it past Bautista the battles at the front of the grid settled down as Razgatlioglu had covered off any vulnerability by acing the start and settling into a comfortable rhythm.  There was however a battle for 4^th featuring Locatelli, Petrucci, Iannone and Gerloff.

Locatelli held a gap of just under a second to stay out of range from Petrucci as Iannone made a mistake at the chicane that dropped him out of the fight and behind Dominique Aegerter with 8 laps to go.  Vickers was a couple of seconds behind holding Remy Gardner at bay for 9^th, both of whom had made up several spots since the start.

Meanwhile, van der Mark had yet more mechanical trouble as his nightmare weekend in Donington continued with another retirement on Sunday as his teammate romped to a triple victory.  The only threat to Razgatlioglu was a track limits warning but it did not advance into a penalty.

Bulega was in bigger trouble than the leader as his teammate Bautista put on a charge to close right up to him on the final lap.  Bulega just held on from Bautista as Razgatlioglu came home 3 seconds clear of the Ducatis and took the championship lead for the first time this year with a record 12^th victory at the Prosecco DOC UK Round.

Further down, Iannone made it back past Aegerter for 7^th but Vickers fell backwards once again and came home 11^th.  Scott Redding was behind in 12^th, completely unable to replicate the pace he had shown in Race 1 the previous day while British wildcard Tommy Bridewell retired.

Lecuona’s Honda finally held together for a race distance at the 3^rd attempt this weekend to take 10^th behind Gardner, then came the two Brits.  Vickers and Redding were the meat in a Honda sandwich as Montella and Rea trundled home as the last of the points scorers.

Race 2 Results

Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK