Now that the 2019 F1 Championship is nearing its summer break, the traditional driver market rumours have started coming in thick and fast. To help sort the bluff from the believable, we’ve identified five key hotspots in this year’s silly season.
Esteban Ocon
Mercedes AMG
Esteban Ocon is expected to be the driver market’s dominant figure this year. Although his chances of a 2020 Mercedes drive have been slashed by Valtteri Bottas’ run of improved form, there is no shortage of teams to which the Frenchman has been linked.
If Mercedes were to release Ocon as they did Pascal Wehrlein last year, then he could prove the keystone for the midfield shuffle. Renault and Haas especially are known to be interested in a free Ocon, and both teams have drivers out of contract.
Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari Media
Although Sebastian Vettel has a contract with Ferrari for 2020, his distance from the title, infamous disagreements with the stewards and the rise of Charles Leclerc have all left him openly questioning whether F1 is still the place he wants to be.
At the moment Vettel is still expected to at least see out his contract rather than walk away early. But if he does call time on his F1 career this season, the most likely candidate to take his seat is thought to be Bottas or Daniel Ricciardo.
Nico Hülkenberg
Renault Sport Media
Nico Hülkenberg might have scored more than half of Renault’s total points since he joined them in 2017, but that hasn’t stopped team reportedly eyeing up Ocon for his seat next year.
If Hülkenberg were to lose his Renault drive, his only alternative on the 2020 grid would be a sideways move to Haas, Racing Point or Alfa Romeo. However, after nine seasons mired in the midfield he may decide to take his considerable talent to a more competitive series—Formula E, perhaps, or returning to Le Mans with Aston Martin’s hypercar entry.
Romain Grosjean
Haas F1 Media
Romain Grosjean is another driver under pressure from Ocon, with one wild silly season story claiming Haas were even trying to swap the two Frenchmen around for this weekend’s German Grand Prix.
But while that particular rumour has come to nothing, it is true that Grosjean is facing a lot of competition for his seat—not just from Ocon, but also Hülkenberg, Sergio Pérez and now-Ferrari development driver Wehrlein. Whether Grosjean remains on the F1 grid at all next year remains to be seen, with his best option likely swapping seats with Pérez and joining Racing Point.
Nicholas Latifi
Joe Portlock, LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship
There isn’t much space for new young drivers on the 2020 grid, but Formula 2 frontrunner Nicholas Latifi already has his feet under the table with a Williams reserve role. If Williams and Robert Kubica decide to part company at the end of a frustrating year for both parties, Latifi is next in line to replace the Pole.
Latifi has also been linked with Racing Point, forming an all-Canadian lineup with Lance Stroll should Pérez move on to Haas. However, Ocon is a much more likely alternative at present, given his fruitful past relationship with the team and his friendship with Stroll.
The ninth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship took place in Germany at the Sachsenring, where Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) took his tenth consecutive win at the German track.
Marquez made a relatively bad start from his tenth-straight Sachsenring pole and was out-dragged towards turn one by fellow front-row starters Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha SRT) and Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), but the #93 out-brakes the Yamaha riders around the outside on the entry to the first turn.
Maverick Vinales at the 2019 MotoGP German race. Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing
Vinales, in turn, forced out Quartararo in turn one, as Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) took third. Before the end of the first lap, though, Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) took third away from Miller, although the Ducati rider came back in turn one.
A crash for Quartararo broke the pack up on lap two. The Frenchman was unhurt but it allowed a gap to appear between Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL) in fifth and Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) in sixth.
On lap three, Marquez started to move the pace on, and Mille started to struggle. Rins had already passed him back for third, and before the end of the lap Crutchlow was through for fourth. Miller’s lack of pace had brought Danilo Petrucci back towards him and Crutchlow, and the second Mission Winnow Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso was there, too, as well as Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT), Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in tenth.
At turn twelve on lap four, Alex Rins got past Maverick Vinales for second place as Marquez’s advantage grew to six tenths. Marquez’ strategy was to use the first two laps to warm his front tyre, and then push to open a gap. It was a strategy which worked – Rins was able to go faster than Vinales, but not fast enough to close Marquez.
With twenty-four laps to go, Marquez’ advantage was over one second, and with twenty-two to go it was approaching 1.5 seconds over Rins, who in turn had over one second back to Vinales, whilst Crutchlow was pressuring the #12.
When Marquez’ gap reached three seconds, he backed the pace off to conserve the tyre which had been a concern over the weekend for the whole field, such were the temperatures and the particular demands of the especially anti-clockwise Sachsenring.
Marc Marquez celebrating his win at the 2019 Sachsengring MotoGP race. Image courtesy of Box Repsol
Marquez’ lead was extended further on lap twelve when Alex Rins crashed at turn eleven out of second place. If his win wasn’t assured already, it was now. Marquez continued out front for eleven relatively comfortable laps, and took his tenth-straight Sachsenring win. Additionally, it was his fifth win of the season, and his championship advantage opened up to fifty-eight points ahead of the summer break – a healthy margin with ten races to go and a useful buffer with strong tracks for Ducati coming up on the calendar.
Maverick Vinales spent most of the race with Cal Crutchlow no more than two tenths behind him. Originally, this was for third place but Rins’ crash made that into the second-place battle. Towards the end, the gap between the Spaniard and the Briton increased and Vinales took second place 4.587 seconds behind Marquez, and over three seconds clear of Crutchlow as he took his third podium of the season a week on from his dominant win in Assen.
Crutchlow was unsure whether he would be able to race on Sunday such was the pain he was in after his bicycle accident between Assen and Sachsenring in which he broke the top of his tibia. To turn from that on Sunday to a third place and his second podium of the season in Sachsenring is impressive from the Briton who has struggled for front feeling with the 2019 Honda. Finishing the first half of the season the way he started it is a good way to go into the summer break for the #35.
Fourth place went to Danilo Petrucci who came out on top in a big battle between himself, Dovizioso, Miller and Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar). Petrucci knew that Sachsenring was not a favourable track for Ducati, but he enjoyed the track himself – with a new Ducati contract for 2020 under his belt he had no problems taking points away from Dovizioso who he now trails by only six points in the championship.
Andrea Dovizioso & Danilo Petrucci at the 2019 German MotoGP. Image courtesy of Ducati
Dovizioso himself was able to turn a difficult weekend and a thirteenth-place grid slot into a fifth place, although this was not enough to lift his mood as he saw the 2019 world title slip even further away.
Jack Miller took sixth place. To be fighting with the factory GP19s is all Miller could have hoped for in Sachsenring, and he had them both well in sight at the flag. Joan Mir was seventh after a strong ride in which he almost certainly learned a great deal about how to fight in a MotoGP race and how to conserve a tyre.
Valentino Rossi was in the fight with Mir and the GP19s until the closing stages of the race, when his medium rear tyre – which most riders commented was harder than the hard compound – started to give up. The summer break has come at the right time for Rossi, who needs to reset for the second half of the season having missed the podium since Texas and not been in the top five since Le Mans.
Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) suffered similar late-race pace to Rossi and finished ninth. Perhaps it is useful to consider in this moment that Morbidelli has been open about modelling his own riding style on Rossi’s. Considering the comparable results of the two in recent races, perhaps it can be judged that – at least for this year’s edition of the YZR-M1 – this decision by Morbidelli has not been the best one.
Stefan Bradl, in place of Jorge Lorenzo at the Repsol Honda Team, was able to finish tenth, giving the factory Honda team their first double-top ten since Malaysia 2018 when Marquez won and Dani Pedrosa was fifth.
Tito Rabat (Reale Avintia Racing) finished eleventh, ahead of Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Andrea Iannone (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini), the heavily and increasingly injured Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU) and Karel Abraham (Reale Avintia Racing) who completed the points.
Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) was sixteenth, ahead of Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Racing) whose clearance to race was a questionable one after being admitted to hospital and admitting himself to headaches after a practice crash on Friday. The Italian had a big run-on in turn one early in the race, which compromised his result. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) crashed early on, and was the final classified rider in seventeenth.
After Fabio Quartararo crashed out on lap two, Johann Zarco (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) also crashed out a lap later. There was not another retirement until Rins dropped out on lap nineteen. After Rins fell, only Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini) dropped out, as he crashed with two laps to go after a strong ride in which he was fighting for the top ten.
Sunday morning’s race ended in a nail-biting final lap showdown which saw reverse grid pole-sitter Megan Gilkes hold off the charging Alice Powell to win by just 0.03s.
The grid was based on a full reversal of the championship points, including all twenty race and reserve drivers. The race, which did not offer points, saw Megan Gilkes and Sarah Bovy start on the front row, while championship contenders Beitske Visser and Jamie Chadwick lined up 19th and 20th.
The race came down to an intense final-lap battle between Gilkes, the youngest driver in the field, and the experienced racer Powell who had overtaken her way through the field from 17th on the grid. Despite Powell’s relentless attempts to take the lead, Gilkes put up a robust defence each and every time, leading to a side-by-side finish, with Gilkes coming out on top by the smallest of margins. Sabre Cook rounded out the podium.
Credit: W Series Media
Gilkes, Bovy, and the American driver Cook, who had a great start to move from 8th to third, held their own out front for the first half of the race. Shea Holbrook, who had started third, struggled for pace and fell down the order, eventually spinning and bringing out the safety car. At the restart, Gilkes came under pressure from Bovy in second, but managed to stay in front.
Alice Powell was among the early movers, jumping from 17th to 9th by the second lap, and refusing to stop there, continuing to climb the order until the very end. Emma Kimilainen also put in a commendable drive, finishing 5th from 15th on the grid and battling for a podium in the process.
Lap 4 saw championship rivals Visser and Chadwick battling over 14th position, with Visser coming out on top, and Chadwick then falling back behind Fabienne Wohlwend. Undeterred, Chadwick was able to battle her way through to finish 8th, while a poor getaway in a safety car restart meant Visser had to settle for 14th.
The race saw two safety car periods, with Gosia Rdest and Shea Holbrook failing to make the finish.
Qualifying for the sixth round of the British Superbike Championship took place at Snetterton. The weather had been inconsistent throughout the weekend but the track remained dry for qualifying.
Scott Redding (Be Wiser Ducati) had been fastest throughout the weekend, and so was the favourite for pole position heading into qualifying. His promise from free practice was one he was able to deliver on as the ex-MotoGP rider took his second pole position of the season on his first visit to Snetterton – perhaps the most ‘European’ of the British tracks with the exceptions of Donington and Silverstone.
Tarran Mackenzie (McAMS Yamaha) was second on the grid. In a weekend where Ducati have been dominant with Redding and competitive with Josh Brookes (Be Wiser Ducati) and Tommy Bridewell (Oxford Racing) it has been Mackenzie who has represented some resistance to the Panigale V4R with his YZF-R1, and starting from the middle of the front row gives him a good chance for the first race tomorrow.
Tommy Bridewell ensured Mackenzie’s Yamaha was the meat in the Ducati sandwich on the front row for tomorrow’s first race as he qualified third. It has been a quiet weekend for the #46, but when the lap time counted he found himself competitive and was able to give himself a good opportunity tomorrow.
Josh Brookes was mostly off the pace compared to his teammate; Redding, throughout free practice, but he seemed to find something in qualifying. The Australian was able to almost match his teammate in Q1, although in the final pole position shootout of Q3 he was only able to manage fourth. The second row is not a disaster for Brookes, of course, and with the fastest four riders of the weekend heading up the grid the races tomorrow should be quite open.
Dan Linfoot (Santander Salt TAG Yamaha) qualified fifth, continuing his good form. Xavi Fores (Honda Racing) also continued his good qualifying form by taking sixth place after his pole position in Knockhill. Danny Buchan (FS-3 Kawasaki) set the seventh-fastest time in Q2, and will line up on the third row ahead of Andrew Irwin (Honda Racing) who crashed in Q2 and Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing) who suffered his first crash of the season on the exit of the final corner in Q3 which brought out the red flags as his bike was stranded in the middle of the track.
Bradley Ray – Buildbase Suzuki. Image courtesy of Suzuki racing
Bradley Ray (Buildbase Suzuki) was the fastest of the riders to not make Q3 and qualified tenth aead of Luke Stapleford (Buidlbase Suzuki) and Luke Mossey (OMG Racing Suzuki) who was disappointed to round out the fourth row after a strong showing in free practice.
Michael Laverty, replacing Keith Farmer at Tyco BMW Motorrad, qualified thirteenth ahead of Hector Barbers who is back in at Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki replacing Glenn Irwin who has vision issues following a bout of the flu. Christian Iddon (Tyco BMW Motorrad), complete with a nineteen-day-old broken leg, completes row five.
Josh Elliott (OMG Racing Suzuki) qualified sixteenth ahead of Joe Francis (Lloyd & Jones Bowker Motorrad) on his first competitive outing with the 2019 BMW S1000RR. Ben Currie (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) was the slowest of the riders in Q2 and will line up eighteenth for race one.
James Ellison (Smiths Racing) qualified nineteenth and will head up row seven in race one, ahead of Ryan Vickers (RAF Regular & Reserves Kawasaki) on his return from injury. Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) suffered two crashes in Q1 – at least one confirmed to be a bike problem as he hit a false neutral into turn four – and will complete the seventh row.
Claudio Corti (Team WD-40) was twenty-second fastest, ahead of Matt Truelove (Raceways Yamaha) and David Allingham (EHA Yamaha); whilst Dean Harrison (Silicone Engineering Racing) heads up row nine from Shaun Winfield (Santander Salt TAG Yamaha) and Sam Coventry (Team 64 Motorsports).
Fraser Rogers (Gearlink Kawasaki) was thought to be out of the weekend after a problem on Friday morning, but continued at Snetterton and qualified twenty-eighth, heading up the last row from Danny Kent (Bike Devil Sweda MV Agusta) – who suffered bike problems with the MV F4 – and Dean Hipwell (CDH Racing) who completes the grid for race one.
Emma Kimilainen won from pole after a close battle with Alice Powell, who led much of the race, as championship rivals Jamie Chadwick and Beitske Visser fought for third place.
In her second race back after injuries kept her out of action earlier in the season, Kimilainen took pole in Saturday morning’s qualifying session with a time of 1:34.758.
Powell set the second fastest time, despite having the same car that had suffered a number of issues last time out at the Norisring, due to a rule that meant, while normally drivers swap cars at each round, she had to keep the same car going into this weekend.
Championship leader Chadwick put in the third best time, with her closest title rival and local favourite Visser joining her on the second row of the grid.
Further back on the grid, Norisring winner Marta Garcia and Lichtenstein’s Fabienne Wohlwend qualified 7th and 8th. Meanwhile, Vicky Piria lined up 12th after suffering a fiery failure, cutting her qualifying session short.
W Series Media
As the lights went out for the start of Saturday’s championship race, Kimilainen made a sluggish start, handing Powell the lead, and almost allowing a charging Chadwick through. Meanwhile, Visser dropped to fifth behind Caitlin Wood. Further back, Garcia tapped the rear of Tasmin Pepper, who then spun, making contact with Miki Koyama, bringing out the safety car on the opening lap.
After the safety car period, pole-sitter Kimilainen pressured Powell throughout the race, with Powell eventually making a small mistake and running onto the kerb with 10 minutes remaining, allowing Kimilainen past. Kimilainen then quickly built up a sizeable lead, crossing the line 5.7 seconds ahead of Powell in second.
Chadwick rounded out the podium, despite seemingly lacking in pace to Powell and Kimilainen ahead, but was able to hold off a strong challenge from title rival Visser, who finished in fourth and pulled off the move of the race, making an early decisive move to pass Wood down the inside.
Wohlwend, still in mathematical championship contention at the start of this race, is now out of the title fight after running wide and damaging her front wing, forcing her to pit. Garcia is also now out of contention after finishing in ninth.
Tomorrow’s race, which will not award points, will see an experimental reverse grid based on today’s race results. After today’s penultimate championship race, Chadwick leads with 98 points, with her sole remaining challenger Visser on 85 points going into the final round at Brands Hatch on 11th August.
Ask every driver in Formula 1, the home race is guaranteed to be their favourite. This was no exception for current World Champion Lewis Hamilton going in to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend, aiming to build on his lead over rivals Sebastian Vettel and team-mate Valterri Bottas.
It wasn’t an ideal start for Hamilton though, having qualified in P2 on Saturday afternoon after being pipped to the top spot by fellow Mercedes driver Bottas, with only 0.006s between the two laps. This time Hamilton didn’t simply have the luxury of building a lead from the start, he’d have to earn his keep and get past the fiery Finn before getting to the golden trophy.
Behind the two Mercedes’ drivers sat Charles Leclerc in P3, eager for another opportunity to be on the podium following a dramatic Austrian Grand Prix which saw him lose out on 1stplace to the ballsy Dutchman, Max Verstappen and Red Bull who coincidentally sat in P4, providing fans with a great deal of entertainment throughout the race.
It was a relatively clean start all round, however Haas’s week of drama continued as Kevin Magnussen and Roman Grosjean made contact in the first lap, which unfortunately forced both drivers to retire from the race. This unlucky accident resulted in Grosjean’s 5thretirement of the season, and no doubt, 2 pairs of thoroughly boxed ears from an extremely angry Gunter Steiner in the post-race briefing.
At the front of the grid, both Mercedes’ drivers had a good start, with Bottas’ managing to hold his team-mate at bay with some excellent defending. Bottas’ looked to be building a lead on Hamilton. This was all in vain as Antonio Giovannazi beached his Alfa Romeo in the gravel giving Hamilton the opportunity for a free pit stop. Unfortunately, Bottas wasn’t able to catch up with the Brit, who had been rewarded by opportunistic strategy from Mercedes engineers. This lead was held for the duration of the race, much to the joy of the hordes of Hamilton fans in the stands that day.
But we expected that.
Meanwhile, a little bit further down the track, some exciting racing was finally taking place.
Charles Leclerc ahead of Max Verstappen at the 2019 F1 British GP. Image courtesy of Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen was keen to rub yet more salt in Leclerc’s wounds for another podium finish, providing fans with some clean, excellent racing for 13 laps, after which came an overtake that had fans (aka me) screaming at their TV’s in amazement. Both Leclerc and Verstappen came into the pits at the same time, putting enormous pressure on both Ferrari and Red Bull mechanics to get the tyres changed flawlessly and quicker than the other team.
Red Bull won the battle, but as soon as the mechanics had stopped cheering on Verstappen taking 3rdplace from Leclerc in the pitlane, the young Ferrari driver had re-gained the position emerging back on track. New tyres on a newly re-surfaced track caused Verstappen to run wide at turn four, leaving the door wide open for Leclerc to take back 3rdplace.
To pit or not to pit, that was the question once again for Leclerc’s strategists at Ferrari who were slow to bring their number two driver in to change his boots during the safety car. This cost the young Monégasque track position, coming out ahead of Verstappen who had also pitted and emerged in 6th.
The re-start was promising for Verstappen who managed to overtake Leclerc for a second time (on track this time), and push on towards his team-mate Pierre Gasly for 4thposition. Gasly honourably moved aside to allow Verstappen to charge after the other prancing horse, which he quickly met and began the battle for 3rdplace once again.
Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel before Vettel’s late braking incident at the 2019 F! British GP. Image courtesy of Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen overtaking Vettel going into Stowe could have been one of those moments that go down in fondly remembered Formula 1 history, unfortunately, the gods of racing weren’t happy to leave well enough alone. Almost immediately after Verstappen had gained the position, he had lost it once again after Vettel misjudged his braking and shunted the back of the Red Bull which caused them both to run off the track.
By some miracle, the only thing that was damaged was the two drivers’ egos, and the pair somehow managed to work their way out of the notoriously tricky gravel trap and back onto the track to continue with the race. Vettel was slapped with a 10-second time penalty for this incident, which adds to what has been a gut-wrenching season for the 4-time World Champion.
This weekend was not simply an opportunity for fans to bask in Hamilton’s never-ending glory, British fans were also able to say thank you to a F1 icon, Sir Frank Williams who was celebrating an astonishing 50 Years in Formula 1. Although Vettel’s mistake cost Ferrari important championship points, it also gave the Williams’ drivers the opportunity to not finish last for the first time this season. British driver George Russel finished 14thahead of his team-mate Robert Kubica in 15th, although it doesn’t seem like much of an achievement, it was a welcome change for the struggling team.
The racing wasn’t simply reserved for Ferrari and Red Bull, McLaren and Renault were also able to get stuck in. McLaren golden-boy Lando Norris made his intentions quite clear from the beginning, as payback for Ricciardo’s cheekiness in the driver’s conference at the start of the weekend.
The two battled it out wheel-to-wheel, quite literally from the start of the race, through Copse, Maggots and Becketts until Ricciardo eventually lost out to the youngster in the hair-raising battle. Norris’ spectacular driving ability was over-shadowed by McLaren’s poor strategy choice which eventually kept Norris out of the points, finishing in 11th; Ricciardo managed to score his first few points since Canada, finishing in 7thplace.
Following his win at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton is able to go into the German Grand Prix with a 39-point lead on his main rivals, Valterri Bottas and Max Verstappen. That said, after this weekend, there’s quite clearly something special about a home race, and with Hockenheim just around the corner, perhaps this is where Vettel will start to make his comeback.
Featured Photo by Gareth Harford / LAT Images via Pirelli
A dramatic Superpole Race in Laguna Seca for round nine of the 2019 Superbike World Championship saw Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) secure his second win of the weekend, his ninth of the season.
Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) challenged Rea into turn two on the first lap, but the drama was further behind, as Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) made contact with Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) and crashed.
There was possible good fortune for the Spaniard, though, as a heavy crash for JD Beach (Attack Performance Estenson Yamaha) and Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team) brought out the red flags. Both Beach and Delbianco were okay, but Bautista was taken to the medical centre after he brought back the #19 Ducati, and then failed to make the restart.
At the resumption of the race, Rea took the holeshot and immediately cleared off, despite being the only rider not on the SCX tyre, designed especially for the ten-lap sprint races. The reigning World Champion was once again untouchable, and collected another thirteen points, extending his points lead to sixty-one – almost a full weekend’s worth of points and a complete flip of the gap between Rea and Bautista ahead of race two in Jerez. It was Rea’s eightieth World Superbike victory, and the 250th for a British rider in the series.
Chaz Davis at Laguna Seca WSBK 2019. Image courtesy of Ducati
Chaz Davies was similarly unchallenged to take another second place, his third of the season. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) took the final podium spot for his third top three of the season.
Toprak Razgatlioglu was closing on Sykes in the closing laps of the race, but ran out of time, finishing fourth in the end ahead of Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who rounded out the top five. Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) took sixth place ahead of Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha), Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing), Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) who took the final point in ninth and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) who completed the top ten.
Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) was eleventh ahead of Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK), Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team), Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven), Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) and Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) who was the final classified rider in sixteenth after running on at turn two.
The only non-finishers were the non-starters of Delbianco, Beach and Bautista.
The Californian sun welcomed the Superbike World Championship for race one of round nine of the 2019 season, which saw Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) take his eighth win of the season and extend his championship advantage.
From his first Laguna Seca pole position, Rea made the holeshot from Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) who came from third on the grid to follow the Northern Irishman into turn two, the first braking point of the track.
Bautista’s pace on the opening lap was not spectacular, though, and the Spaniard’s ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati teammate, Chaz Davies, moved through in the penultimate corner. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) was able to pass Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) at turn six for fourth place and, in the early part of the race, was able to go with the leaders.
Alvaro Bautista and Chaz Davies in Race One at Laguna Seca WSBK 2019. Image courtesy of Ducati
It was not long, though, before Rea, Davies and Bautista were able to get away at the front. There was fighting brewing between them, though. Davies had chosen the SCX rear tyre, designed for the ten-lap Superpole race, and knew he needed to get to the front to make the most of that choice. He made a move on Rea at the Andretti Hairpin, but was unable to make it stick. At this point, Bautista’s pace was starting to pick up and the #19 was beginning to pressurise his teammate.
Bautista’s challenge for the win was over before long, though, as he crashed out at turn six with twenty-one laps to go. The Spaniard was able to get back on, but didn’t have the pace to reach the points. To pour the salt into the wounds of the 2006 125cc World Champion, he was later lapped by Rea and Davies.
After Bautista’s crash, Davies’ time was running out to make a move before his tyre went away. That move never came, and eventually Rea eased away to what became an eighth win of 2019, which he took by 5.693 seconds. Rea’s twenty-five-point extension took his championship advantage to forty-nine points which, with four-and-two-thirds rounds to go, including Magny-Cours, makes the championship look significantly less attainable for Bautista. The turnaround in fortunes between the championship’s top two since Imola has been stark, and completely unexpected which has been reflected in the surprise of almost everyone involved with the championship from the fans to the riders themselves.
Davies’ second place was his first rostrum since the Imola Superpole race and the result of what appears to be a breakthrough with the Panigale V4R for the Welshman over the course of this weekend. In the two remaining races Davies will be aiming for his first win of the season. His preference towards the SCX tyre might suggest his best chance will be the Superpole race. With Bautista at such a mathematical disadvantage in the championship, it will be interesting to see the extent to which Ducati now ask Davies to play the team game for the rest of the season, and whether Davies will be in the position to help out his teammate if that is what is asked of him.
Toprak Razgatlioglu continued his run of podium positions, taking at least one in every round since Imola. It was a lonely race for the Turk, finishing two seconds ahead of Sykes in fourth, who was unable to respond to Toprak’s lap one move, and seven seconds behind Davies. Toprak’s poor qualifying position of seventh place didn’t impact his race as much as initially thought, since he didn’t have the pace of the leaders regardless of where he started.
Sykes’ fourth place might not have been a podium, but BMW will have been happy to beat the factory Yamaha of Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) in such a tight track. Equally, fifth will have been below the expectations of both Lowes and Yamaha coming into this weekend, where they were on the podium one year ago.
Sixth place went to Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) who had a fantastic race on the privateer Kawasaki, running in fifth place for much of the race before his SCX tyre gave best and had a few goes at flicking the Spaniard. Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) was able to take his broken wrist to another top ten with seventh place ahead of Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha), Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team) who completed the top ten.
Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven) finished his first race since Assen in eleventh place, still suffering with two broken wrists. Particularly the right wrist was a problem for Laverty, a problem which is helped, relatively, by Laguna’s layout which contains only four right-handers. Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) was twelfth ahead of Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team), Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK), who looks somewhat lost at the moment with the YZF-R1, and Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) who took the final point on his return to the World Championship after missing Donington with the flu.
Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) was the final rider to finish on the lead lap in sixteenth, whilst Alvaro Bautista finished seventeenth after his crash.
Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) went down about half-a-lap before Bautista at the Corkscrew, whilst wildcard JD Beach (Attack Performance Estenson Yamaha) retired from his first WorldSBK race with twelve laps to go.
The good weather from the morning remained in the afternoon in Donington for the second full-length race of the weekend, in which Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) took his first triple of the season.
Starting from pole position, courtesy of his Superpole Sprint Race win, Rea made the holeshot from Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) and Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati), although the Spaniard was soon demoted to fourth by Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK). Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) completed the top five on lap one, whilst the three Yamaha riders – Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK), Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) and Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha) – were fighting behind.
Alvaro Bautista and Chaz Davis at Donington 2019 WSBK. Image courtesy of Ducati
Lowes and Baz were able to get past van der Mark, and started to close down Davies, who was dropping off Bautista in fourth.
Meanwhile, out front, Rea and Razgatlioglu were edging away from Haslam behind. That is, they were until Toprak hit the front. When the Turk took the lead from Rea, Haslam was able to close in, as was Bautista who was able to make it an eight-wheeled battle for the lead with twenty laps to go.
Rea reclaimed the lead with just over seventeen laps to go when Razgatlioglu ran wide in the Melbourne Hairpin. Fortunately for the #54, he only dropped to second, as Haslam also ran slightly wide. The mistake from Razgatlioglu didn’t split the group, though, and neither did the fighting between Toprak and Haslam who swapped positions in the Foggy Esses and the Melbourne Hairpin.
Two laps after his mistake in the penultimate corner, Razgatlioglu re-took the lead from Rea in the same spot.
With thirteen laps to go, Rea was in second and his teammate, Haslam, in third, Bautista’s desire to get past the #91 Kawasaki was growing.
One lap later, the gap from second to third was negated once more, as Razgatlioglu ran wide on the entry to the Foggy Esses which cost him both time and the lead which Rea took once more.
The lap after, Bautista was past Haslam at the Melbourne Hairpin. It was a clean move, despite coming from quite a way back. It was an important move for the Spaniard to make, as the leading two Kawasakis were escaping and Loris Baz was dragging Alex Lowes up to the front group.
Lowes passed Baz with eight laps to go, but continued to drag the Frenchman up to Haslam, and Sykes was closing too.
With two laps to go, the battle was on for the win, but a moment for Razgatlioglu in the Foggy Esses gave the Turk too much work to do on the final lap, which meant Rea took his third win of the weekend, his sixth of the season and his first triple. Additionally, Rea’s championship advantage grew to twenty-four points over Bautista with tracks Rea believes to be in his favour on the WorldSBK horizon.
Razgatlioglu’s third second place to Jonathan Rea in the last three Sunday races will not have gone down particularly well. However, the Turk has only one less podium since Imola than Bautista who was unbeaten before the Italian round, which is impressive from the second-year Puccetti rider.
Alvaro Bautista ended his recent run of misfortune in WorldSBK second races to take his first podium of the weekend with third place. Having lost the championship lead this weekend, there will now need to be a change in mindset for the Spaniard at Laguna Secam and for the second half of the season.
Alex Lowes was fourth. It was his best race of the weekend, and could have been better but he took too long to pass Haslam, leaving him without the time to attack Bautista for the final podium spot. Haslam’s fifth place looked unlikely with a few laps to go with two Yamahas and a BMW closing him down, but he hung on from Baz who was sixth and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) who recovered from eleventh on the grid (due to his declassification from race one) to finish seventh. However, there will have been some disappointment from Sykes, who could have fought with Rea and Razgatlioglu had he started from the front row.
Michael van der Mark – Pata Yamaha WorldSBK – 2019 WorldSBK – R8 Donington. Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing
Michael van der Mark’s target for the Donington weekend was top tens following his crash in Misano in which he broke a wrist. Top tens is what he achieved, beating Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) to eighth in race two. Davies himself finished ninth after dropping off following the opening laps when he was fighting inside the top five. Marco Melandri’s gamble on the SCX tyre (designed for the ten lap Superpole race) got him to tenth place with the GRT Yamaha WorldSBK YZF-R1 early on, and the Italian remained there to round out the top ten for the second time on Sunday.
Peter Hickman’s BMW Motorrad WorldSBK S1000RR held together in the second race and he finished eleventh, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing Team), Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK), Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) and Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team) completed the points, whilst Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) was the final classified rider in sixteenth.
Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) was the only non-finisher, as he retired with bike problems early on.
There was no rest for the Superbike World Championship after the eighth round of the 2019 season in Donington, as one week later the paddock is in California for round nine of the season at Laguna Seca.
Despite Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) displacing Alvaro Bautista (AUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) from the top of the standings in Donington last week, the biggest news coming into Laguna is that GRT Yamaha WorldSBK’s Marco Melandri is retiring at the end of the season after more than twenty years of World Championship racing. The thirty-six-year-old Italian amassed twenty-two Grand Prix victories across the 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP classes between his debut in 1997 and 2010 before he moved to the Superbike World Championship with what was the factory Yamaha team alongside Eugene Laverty. Although he moved away from Superbikes in 2015 and 2016 at the request of Aprilia with whom he competed the 2014 WSBK series, Melandri was able to achieve twenty-two wins in WorldSBK for Yamaha, BMW, Aprilia and most recently Ducati. The Italian has not endeared himself, necessarily, to all of hisrivals (most recently Chaz Davies in Jerez) but has made a lasting impression on World Championship motorcycle racing and it will be interesting to see how he fairs in the final four months of his racing career.
Marco Melandri – GRT Yamaha Supported WorldSBK – 2019 WorldSBK – R7 Misano. Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing
Despite his success on the world stage, Melandri has found the top step at Laguna Seca only once, on the Aprilia in 2014.
Jonathan Rea, on the other hand, has four wins at the Weather Tech Raceway since it arrived on the WorldSBK calendar in 2013. The tight, twisty nature of Laguna should suit the Kawasaki of 2019 quite well in its battle with the Ducati Panigale V4R, and Rea’s championship fight with Bautista. Additionally, the hard braking zones of the Andretti Hairpin, the Corkscrew and the final corner should suit Rea’s hard braking style quite well, and could put him in line to extend his championship lead even further from the twenty-four points it currently sits at.
For Bautista, the challenge could be just as difficult as Donignton, with Laguna holding one quite important trait, with respect to the Ducati, which is similar to the British track, that is that there is little time spent at full throttle, and less time spent with the bike upright. Almost all of Laguna Seca is spent on the side of the tyre, and much of it is spent with half-throttle. Bautista has shown often this year that his Panigale is capable of being extremely fast in the high-speed corners, however in the low-speed the Ducati is better matched with the Kawasaki, which could work against Bautista, who has not visited Laguna since MotoGP were last there in 2013. Perhaps it should be noted, though, that Bautista’s result on that 2013 trip to Laguna was one in which he missed the podium to Valentino Rossi by less than half-a-tenth.
One of the surprises of Laguna Seca one year ago was Eugene Laverty, who finished third in race two for his first podium of 2018 on the Aprilia, and the RSV4’s final podium in the Superbike World Championship. Now at Team Goeleven, Laverty arrives in California still nursing two broken wrists after his Imola practice crash in May. Having tried to come back in Donington, but sat out after Friday afternoon, Laverty will try once more this weekend to be back on the grid before the summer break.
Outside of the two championship contenders, Rea and Bautista, there should be plenty of competition for the podium. Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was able to achieve two podiums in Donington, taking his total for the season to six. Haslam’s main issue with the 2019 WorldSBK-spec ZX-10RR is still getting the bike stopped in the heavy braking zones and the three aforementioned big stops (Andretti Hairpin, Corkscrew, final corner) will likely prove problematic for the reigning BSB champion. However, the more flowing sections of the track should suit his style.
Alex Lowes – Pata Yamaha WorldSBK – 2019 WorldSBK – R8 Donington. Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing
The same could be said for Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) who narrowly missed the podium in race two last week in Donington to Bautista and was third in Laguna race one last year. Lowes’ Pata Yamaha WorldSBK teammate, Michael van der Mark, will still be contending with his own broken wrist. The Dutchman was able to finish inside the top ten in all three races in Britain, and will be aiming for more of the same this time out.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing) will probably be wondering at the moment what he has to do to beat Jonathan Rea, having been beaten in race-long battles by the Northern Irishman twice in the last two rounds. His own hard-braking style, more aggressive than Rea’s, could be effective this weekend, although Californian temperatures could lead to tyre degradation problems later in the race for the aggressive Turk. If he can manage the tyre, he should be there in the podium fight.
