Race victory in the Superpole race on Day 2 of the WorldSBK championship at Jerez at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, Andalusia went to reigning Champion Jonathan Rea having taken the lead from polesitter Scott Redding at the start of the race to jump from third to first. Rea held the lead for the full 10 lap race.

Redding went down to third having also been been passed by Razgatlioglu at the start but whilst battling with Redding, Razgatlioglu suffered technical issues thus ending his race early enabling his teammate van der Mark to claim a podium place.

The top independent rider Loris Baz was up into fourth ahead of the Redding’s teammate, Chaz Davies in fifth place and despite suffering issues in Race 1, Tom Sykes was able to claim 6th place even though he did drop three places from his start position.

Lowes finished in 7th place followed by the Yamaha of Gerloff and claiming the last points paying position was Haslam on the Honda.

The starting grid looked like this:

Row 1 : Rea : Redding : van der Mark

Row 2: Baz : Davies : Sykes

Row 3 : Lowes : Gerloff : Haslam

Row 4 : Razgatlioglu : Bautista : Rinaldi

Row 5 : Laverty : Cortese : Caricasulu

Row 6 : Fores : Scheib :

Row 7 : Melandri : Mercado : Barrier

Row 8 : Gabellini : Takahashi : Ponsson

Race 2 : After the warm up lap, the riders line up on the start grid waiting for the lights to go green and when they do, Rea gets a good start but Razgatlioglu gets an even better start moving from tenth on the grid to 3rd. Davies has a look around the outside of Razgatlioglu but couldn’t quite make the pass and is in 4th.

On Lap 2 Redding goes alongside Rea at the right-hander of Turn 1 and passes on the inside going into the corner. The BMW of Laverty can be seen slowing down with what looks like a technical issue and is unable to finish the race.

Going into turn 3 on Lap 3 Davies goes up the inside of Razgatlioglu into 3rd place, Razgatlioglu is looking to get back past but can’t manage it. On the following lap coming into Turn 9, Davies goes on the inside of Rea pushing him wide and sliding past in a very smooth pass up into 2nd. Ducati are now 1st and 2nd.

Lap 5 sees Razgatlioglu pass Rea but Rea manages to get back past and hang onto 3rd position.

On Lap 6, Takahashi suffered a crash at Turn 5 thus ending his race and then coming into the corner at Turn 13, we see Baz lose it and slide into the gravel. He was able to get the bike back up and out of the gravel and rejoin the track but was now down in last place.

Razgatlioglu eventually passes Rea on Lap 7 and moves up into 3rd place whilst the battle for 5th is hotting up between van der Mark and Rinaldi, In the meantime the two leading Ducati’s of Redding and Davies are pulling out a comfortable lead against the rest of the pack.

Lowes is looking to get past Rea whilst Rinaldi is looking to get past Lowes and on lap 12 Rinaldi keeps a tight line alongside Lowes going into the corner and manages to stay ahead moving up into 5th place. Lowes tries to respond but Rinaldi has firmly got his sights set on Rea and is edging closer to the reigning Champion.

On the following lap, Rinaldi shoots up on the inside of Rea coming into a corner but then runs wide allowing Rea to move back past again but on Turn 13 Rinaldi pulls out of the corner onto the start/finish line and comes back past Rea on the inside in a very smooth overtake and up into 4th place which he manages to keep hold off.

On Lap 16 Lowes passes Rea on the inside pushing Rea down into 5th and by the following lap we can see van der Mark chasing Rea down in the hopes of getting past too. Surely Rea must have an issue with his bike as he struggling to hold his position.

Sykes is now closing in on Gerloff and by the last lap you can see the riders are struggling with their tyres in the heat with many running wide.

Redding passes the chequered flag with a very comfortable lead over his teammate, Davis followed by Razgatlioglu and Rinaldi. Lowes finishes ahead of Rea who has managed to keep van der Mark behind him to finish 6th.

Another brilliant race win for Redding, his second win of this weekend and a double win for Ducati with 1st and 2nd place.

What a brilliant weekend of WorldSBK racing we have had and luckily we haven’t got long to wait until Round 3 which is next weekend, the 7th to 9th August at the Algarve International Circuit, Portimão, Portugal.

The Driver’s / Team Standings so far at the end of Round 2 at Jerez on the 1st and 2nd August looked like this:

Pos	Rider	Points	Pos	Team	Points
1	Scott Redding	98	1	Kawasaki	100
2	Jonathan Rea	74	2	Ducati	98
3	Alex Lowes	72	3	Yamaha	86
4	Toprak Razgatlioglu	66	4	Honda	41
5	Chaz Davies	57	5	BMW	27
6	Michael van der Mark	47	6	Aprilia	4
7	Loris Baz	37
8	Alvaro Bautista	37
9	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	30
10	Leon Haslam	28
11	Tom Sykes	26
12	Marco Melandri	15
13	Garrett Gerloff	15
14	Sandro Cortese	14
15	Xavi Forbes	11
16	Maximillan Scheib	10
17	Eugene Laverty	6
18	Christophe Ponsson	4
19	Federico Caricasulo	4
20	Leandro Mercado	1

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Featured Image courtesy of Ducati

What a great restart to to the WorldSBK championship at Jerez this weekend (31 Jul-02 Aug) for Round 2 in Spain at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, Andalusia after a five month break.

Superpole took place earlier in the day with the Championship leader Lowes crashing at Turn 13 in the first phase of the session and was unable to set a lap time but was able to get back on the track with 15 minutes left of the session and will start the race down in 14th place.

Leandro ‘Tati’ Mercado took a tumble at Turn 4. He will start the race in 20th place.

After a tense session rookie Scott Redding took pole position by just 0.034s over Rea closely followed by Sykes.

The starting grid looked like this:

Row 1 : Redding : Rea : Sykes

Row 2: van der Mark : Razgatlioglu : Baz

Row 3 : Davies : Bautista : Haslam

Row 4 : Rinaldi : Laverty : Cortese

Row 5 : Caricasulo : Lowes : Gerloff

Row 6 : Fores : Scheib : Ponsson

Row 7 : Melandri : Mercado : Barrier

Row 8 : Gabellini : Takahashi

Before the start of Race 1, a minute’s silence was held in memory of those who lost their lives to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

With 20 laps of racing and the air temperature at 36 degrees, Race 1 gets underway but Redding does not have a good start at all but manages to cling onto 3rd place by the first corner, Rea goes up into first place whilst Razgatlioglu makes an incredible start and is up into 2nd place from starting 5th.

On Lap 3 Caricasulo crashes at Turn 4 and although he manages to get the bike going again, unfortunately this is only to the pits.

Lap 4 sees firth place man Tom Sykes slowing down and pulling over to the side of the track as he approached Turn 1. It looked like some kind of technical issue as he does manage to get the bike going again and back to the pits. He was able to rejoin the race on Lap 12.

By Lap 5 Rea is pulling out a lead and Razgatlioglu and Redding are squabbling for 3rd place with Razgatlioglu managing to hold off the rookie for now.

Lap 8, a very unhappy van der Mark, suffers engine problems with lots of smoke coming from his bike. He manages to pull over and park the bike before getting a lift back to the pits on the back of a marshal’s scooter.

By Lap 9 although Rea is still holding the lead, the gap between Rea and Razgatlioglu is getting smaller and Lap 10 sees Redding having a look to get past Razgatlioglu whilst Davies, who is in fourth place is lapping half a second quicker than race leader Rea.

On Lap 11  Redding passes Razgatlioglu in a very smooth overtake as he now sets his sights on the leader, Rea.

Mercado suffered a crash at Turn 6 on Lap 12 ending his race. Lap 14 sees Redding going down into Turn 6 getting alongside Rea before forcing him wide to claim the lead and although Rea nearly gets back past Redding on Lap 15, it wasn’t to be and Redding starts to pull out a lead.

Rinaldi puts in a fastest lap on Lap 16 and Davies is now up to 5th place but he soon passes Baz on Lap 17 into 4th place and has his sights set on Razgatlioglu. A few times on the last two laps Davies nearly gets past Razgatlioglu but then on the last lap he runs wide effectively ending his hunt for third place.

Redding crosses the finish line 1st followed by Rea in 2nd and Razgatlioglu in 3rd.

A fantastic Race 1 and restart to the season. Looking forward to Race 2 tomorrow.

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Featured Image courtesy of Ducati

World Superbikes returns this weekend (31 Jul-02 Aug) for Round 2 in Spain at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto, Andalusia after a five month break when the 2020 battle for the title WorldSBK championship recommences.

At the moment there are 8 more rounds of this season but of course in this current situation this could change at anytime. The remaining rounds are:

Round 3 : Algarve International Circuit, Portimão, Portugal : 07-09 August

Round 4 : MotorLand Aragon, Teruel, Spain : 28-30 August

Round 5 : MotorLand Aragon, Teruel, Spain : 04-06 September

Round 6 : Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona : 18-20 September

Round 7 : Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours, France : 02-04 October

Round 8 : Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Magny-Cours, France : TBC

Round 9 : Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”, Riviera Di Rimini, Italy : TBC

It has just been announced that after extensive discussions between the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) and Dorna WSBK Organization (DWO), that three rounds have been cancelled and these were to be held at Donington Park (the first time in WorldSBK history that there will not be a round in the UK); the Dutch Round at the TT Circuit Assen (which has been a permanent fixture on the calendar since 1992) and the Qatar Round at the Losail International Circuit.

The Driver’s / Team Standings so far at the end of Round 1 at Philip Island on the 29 Feb-01 Mar looked like this:

Pos	Rider	Points	Pos	Team	Points
1	Alex Lowes	51	1	Kawasaki	57
2	Scott Redding	39	2	Yamaha	47
3	Toprak Razgatlioglu	34	3	Ducati	39
4	Jonathan Rea	32	4	Honda	23
5	Michael van der Mark	31	5	BMW	17
6	Alvaro Bautista	20
7	Loris Baz	20
8	Chaz Davies	19
9	Leon Haslam	17
10	Tom Sykes	17
11	Maximillan Scheib	10
12	Sandro Cortese	10
13	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	7
14	Xavi Fores	5
15	Eugene Laverty	5
16	Federico Caricasulo	4
17	Garrett Gerloff	2
18	Takumi Takahashi	0

During the five months hiatus, teams were busy developing their bikes, engines and race strategies and the riders were continuing with their fitness regimes to ensure they are race fit.

Two days of testing took place at MotorLand Aragon on the 16th/17th July where track temperatures were pushing 50 degrees celsius during the afternoon session. Topping the board at the end of day one was Team HRC’s Leon Haslam who beat his teammate Alvaro Bautista followed by Christophe Ponsson riding for Nuova M2 Racing who are putting in five wildcard appearances this season on the Aprilia RSV4 1000. Ponsson was incredibly only about a second off Haslam’s pace.

Day two of testing still saw the scorching heat meaning the track temperature was high again leading to a few crashes and red flags with Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) riding the ZX-10RR being the man to beat after setting a blistering time in the morning session with his teammate Alex Lowes in 4th.

Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) was 2nd a mere 0.156s behind Rea and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 3rd with his teammate Eugene Laverty in 6th place.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team) finished 5th and whilst Leon Haslam in the Honda HRC team was inside the top five after lunch, he finished the day in 9th with his teammate Alvaro Bautista down in 15th.

So after five months of waiting this is shaping up to be an exciting restart to the 2020 WorldSBK season.

Featured image courtesy of Ducati

The second full-length race of the eleventh round of the 2019 Superbike World Championship saw different conditions face the riders compared to the morning in Magny-Cours, with overcast skies and strong winds.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Turkish Puccetti Racing), winner of the first two races of the weekend, started from pole position alongside Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK).

It was a decent start from the Turk from his first pole position but it was Rea who made the holeshot ahead of him.

A mistake from Razgatlioglu in turn five saw him run on and drop back to fourth behind van der Mark and a strong-starting Alvaro Bautista (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) who moved up to third.

In an attempt to come back through on Bautista in turn eleven, Razgatlioglu lost the front and left the Spaniard nowhere to go. The pair of them went down, leaving van der Mark leading from Rea out front whilst Alex Lowes (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK) was third.

With seventeen laps to go, Lowes started to close in on the leading pair, although Rea seemed to have a pace advantage on van der Mark.

Rea decided to go to the front with sixteen to go, possibly sensing Lowes closing from behind and wanting to avoid adding another variable in the fight for the win.

Rea, though, was unable to drop van der Mark initially, and Lowes continued his push towards the lead, just eight tenths back on the end of lap seven.

Van der Mark returned to the front at turn five on lap eight, bringing Lowes closer still, and by the end of the lap it was affirmatively a trio at the front.
On lap twelve, Rea hit the front again, squaring van der Mark off at the hairpin. It was clear that Rea thought that this would be his chance to get away.

However, he was denied once more by van der Mark one lap later at the hairpin, to which Rea was able to respond on the entry to the Nurburgring chicane.

Rea led as they entered the final nine lap, but both Yamaha riders were still there and a mistake from Rea in turn one allowed van der Mark through on the inside in turn three again. Rea responded once more into the Nurburgring chicane and with each reactive move from Rea to maintain his lead it became more clear that Rea felt he could get away with a few clear laps.

As the race drew into the final five laps, Rea began to stretch out his advantage and it reached to over half a second. Visibly van der Mark was on the limit to try to match Rea’s pace, the championship leader seemingly relatively comfortable in comparison.

With three laps to go the lead approached one second, and in the end it was a relatively straightforward ending to the race for Rea who took victory to claim his fifth straight Superbike World Championship, perhaps the most unlikely one against the strongest opposition he has faced so far in the shape of Alvaro Bautista. It was an unlikely happening coming into the weekend, but the circumstances were right and Rea did not let the opportunity pass.

A second podium of the day was as much as van der Mark could do. The Dutchman was quite spectacular in this race as he tried to stay with Rea, to try to be in a position to attack in the last part of the race, but finally he missed the small amount he needed to really fight with the newly crowned five-times World Champion.

Third place for Alex Lowes was perhaps unexpected but the result of a solid ride from the #22 for his first visit to the podium in a full length race since Thailand.

Fourth place went to Chaz Davies (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) who had strong pace, possibly enough for the podium. The problem for Davies came when he had to take to the grass on the inside of turn eleven to avoid Razgatlioglu and Bautista, which cost him a lot of time and positions. In the end, fourth place was a good recovery from the Welshman, finishing ahead of Loris Baz whp had a nother strong ride on the Ten Kate Racing – Yamaha YZF-R1.

Sixth place was quite distant – almost twenty seconds back to Marco Melandri (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) who was ahead of Leon Haslam (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK), Leon Camier (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) and Jordi Torres (Team Pedercini Racing) who completed the top ten.

Leandro Mercado (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) was eleventh, ahead of Eugene Laverty (Team Goeleven), Sylvain Barrier (Brixx Performance), Ryuichi Kiyonari (Moriwaki Althea Honda Team) and Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK) who completed the points scorers.

Alessandro Delbianco (Althea Mie Racing Team) was sixteenth, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi (BARNI Racing) who had a trip across the gravel early in the race and dropped a lot of times and positions as a result – the Italian crossing the line last of the seventeen finishers at the end of the twenty-one laps.

Aside from Bautista and Razgatlioglu, only Sandro Cortese (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) failed to finish the second race in Magny-Cours, the final European race of the 2019 season.

Featured image courtesy of Yamaha Racing