Category: World Superbikes

Round 8 of the WorldSBK took place at Estoril and in order to keep the championship alive and stop Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) from claiming his 6th consecutive World Title, Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) needs to win here this weekend.

It was an incident packed Superpole where we saw both Rea and Redding crash out with both bikes badly damaged. Fortunately for Rea, he had set a lap time before his crash which meant that although he was unable to get back out on track to set any further lap times, he started from 15th on the grid unlike Redding who started at the back of the grid having not set a time.

Claiming his first ever pole was Toprak Razgatlioglu for the (PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team) ahead of Leon Haslam (Team HRC) and Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Junior Team).

Race One

The starting grid for Race 1 looked like this:

Row 1 : Razgatlioglu : Haslam : Gerloff Row 2 : Davies : Rinaldi : van der Mark

Row 3 : Lowes : Bautista : Fores Row 4 : Sykes : Folgar : Baz

Row 5 : Caricasulo : Laverty : Rea Row 6 : Mercado : Ferrari : Morais

Row 7 : Takahashi : Granado : Cresson Row 8 : Redding

With 21 laps of racing, Race 1 got underway with Razgatlioglu getting off to a great start and in the lead at the first corner with Rinaldi up to 2nd and Gerloff in 3rd. Rea had moved from 15th place to 7th and Redding into 15th.

By Lap 2 Rea has moved up to 5th place having taken Lowes and van der Mark and passing Haslam into 4th place the following lap. Turns 9 and 10 sees Rea pass Rinaldi up into 3rd.

Razgatlioglu is pulling out a lead on 2nd place Gerloff by lap 4, van der Mark and Davies both take Haslam pushing the Honda rider down to 7th. Redding is now up into 12th place but unfortunately on the next lap we see him slow and pull over at the side with what looks like mechanical issues. Rea just needs to finish the race now in a points position to become world champion.

Van der Mark is hot on the heels of Rea but lap 8 sees van der Mark go down into the gravel at turn 7 and out of the race. Rea takes Gerloff on lap 9 and now has his sights firmly set on the leader. Haslam takes Lowes on the inside closely followed by Bautista and Davies passes Gerloff and starts to chase down Rea.

The start of lap 12 sees Davies pass Rea up into 2nd place and a few corners later Rea runs wide allowing Gerloff to slide past on the inside. Lap 14, Razgatlioglu has a 4.3 second lead over Davies in 2nd place and at Turn 1 Rea takes 3rd place back from Gerloff but Gerloff is not giving up and is glued to Rea’s rear and the following lap takes the place back.

On lap 17 Haslam takes Lowes at Turn 1 but a few corners later runs wide allowing Lowes to take the place back. Razgatlioglu has the race under control and is riding a superb race. Bautista goes down and into the gravel at Turn 6 on the following lap thus putting an early end to his race for the 5th time this year.

We see Haslam and Lowes switch places on the next two laps in their fight for 5th place but it is Razgatlioglu who is the comfortable winner today with over a 4 second lead ahead of 2nd place Davies, Gerloff in 3rd and Rea in 4th.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) has now secured his 6th consecutive WorldSBK World Title and is a very deserved Champion indeed.

Race Two

After a brilliant race one, Race 2 is set to be as nail biting too and with 21 laps to go the starting grid looks like this:

Row 1 : Razgatlioglu : Gerloff : van der Mark Row 2 : Davies : Rea : Redding

Row 3 : Bautista : Haslam : Rinaldi Row 4 : Lowes : Fores : Sykes

Row 5 : Folgar : Baz : Caricasulo Row 6 : Laverty : Mercadi : Ferrari

Row 7 : Morais : Takahashi : Granado Row 8 : Cresson

A fantastic start by Razgatlioglu who is first into Turn 1 with Davies up into 2nd and van der Mark in 3rd. 4th place Rea makes contact with van der Mark going into Turn 10 but both riders manage to keep hold of their bikes. By the end of the lap Davies has taken the lead from Razgatlioglu.

Lowes is on the heels of van der Mark on the following lap and Redding is looking to get past Rea. At Turn 4 on lap 3, 3rd place Gerloff goes into the gravel at Turn 4 putting an early end to his race.

By lap 7 Davies is pulling out a comfortable lead. Rea is now closing down Razgatlioglu and lap 8 sees Rea take the place on the start/finish line only for Razgatlioglu to take it back again. Lap 9 we see Rea repeat the overtake on the start/finish line but going into Turn 1 he loses it going up the inside of Razgatlioglu and sliding across the track. Rea manages to rejoin the race but is now in 16th place.

Van der Mark is up into 4th place by lap 10 with Lowes 5th. Bautista and his teammate, Haslam, are fighting for 6th position. Lap 13 is unlucky for Baz and Folgar who both clearly have mechanical issues and are both slowing down and then pull off the track.

Redding is reducing the gap on Razgatlioglu and Turn 7 on lap 14 Lowes goes into the gravel, he tries to rejoin the race but is unable to. What is this going to mean for the manufacturers championship now that both Rea and Lowes are out of the race? Fores has to finish the race in order for Kawasaki to win.

Lap 17 sees Redding take 2nd place from Razgatlioglu, Razgatlioglu is in fighting form and nearly gets the place back but in the end is unable to. With two laps to go, Ducati are 1st and 2nd and the battle for 6th place is hotting up between Rinaldi, Haslam, Fores and Caricasulo.

The final lap finally comes and Davies has a 3 second lead over 2nd place Redding and he takes a very comfortable and well deserved win.

Kawasaki win the manufacturers title over Ducati by 1 point. An extremely close and well fought championship battle.

Another brilliant race and a fantastic final weekend of racing to end the 2020 WorldSBK Championship.

Standings

The Driver’s / Team Standings at the end of Round 8 at Estoril on the 17/18 October looked like this:

Pos	Rider	Points	Pos	Team	Points
1	Jonathan Rea	360	1	Kawasaki	392
2	Scott Redding	305	2	Ducati	391
3	Chaz Davies	273	3	Yamaha	330
4	Toprak Razgatlioglu	228	4	Honda	166
5	Michael van der Mark	223	5	BMW	101
6	Alex Lowes	189	6	Aprilia	4
7	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	186
8	Loris Baz	142
9	Alvaro Bautista	113
10	Leon Haslam	113
11	Garrett Gerloff	103
12	Tom Sykes	88
13	Xavi Fores	61
14	Federico Caricasulo	58
15	Eugene Laverty	55
16	Leandro Mercado	24
17	Marco Melandri	14
18	Jonas Folgar	19
19	Sandro Cortese	14
20	Sylvain Barrier	12
21	Maximillan Scheib	11
22	Takumi Takahashi	6
23	Matteo Ferrari	5
24	Christophe Ponsson	4
25	Roman Ramos	4
26	Lorenzo Zanetti	3
27	Valentin Debise	2
28	Eric Granado	1
29	Xavier Pinsach	1

Featured Image courtesy of Yamaha Racing

The end of an exciting, albeit very strange, MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship season is upon us with one round left in Estoril, Portugal on the 16-18 October.

Round 7 held at Magny-Cours, France on the 2-4 October proved to be full of thrills and spills with Championship leader Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) winning the Superpole Race and Race 1 on the Saturday further extending his championship lead and then Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati) winning Race 2 on the Sunday bringing him back into contention for this year’s title.

The conditions were wet on the Saturday and after a tense Superpole Race it was Eugene Laverty (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) who topped the charts with Jonathan Rea in third position.

Both the BMW’s riders got off to a great start in Race 1 but unfortunately at Turn 1 Laverty was taken out by a falling Sykes after being hit by Garrett Gerloff thus ending what could have been a fantastic race for the BMW riders. Gerloff was able to continue riding but crashed a few laps later thus ending his race also.

Jonathan Rea went on to win the race followed by Loris Baz in second, Alex Lowes third, Chaz Davies fourth, Scott Redding fifth and Toprak Razgatlioglu in sixth.

Race 2 saw Scott Redding fight back to claim a superb victory after an exciting race with Loris Baz claiming his second 2nd place podium of the weekend and after a nail biting duel to the end of the race, Chaz Davies claimed the last podium place just ahead of Jonathan Rea.

Redding is still in contention for the championship title but he will need to win all three races at Estoril in order to stop Jonathan Rea claiming his 6th consecutive world championship title.

With Loris Baz’s double podium, it means that he is still in with a shout of the title in the Independent Riders’ Championship. Baz is 31 points behind Michael Ruben Rinaldi and with three races to gain points from at Estoril, the title could go either way.

As we head to Estoril for what will arguably be a thrilling end to a fantastic season of racing, changes are afoot in the paddock.

After four years at PATA YAMAHA WorldSBK Official Team, Michael van der Mark is heading to the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team alongside existing rider Tom Sykes. As yet no replacement for van der Mark’s seat has been announced by the Yamaha team.

There is also the potential of an independent BMW Team making it’s way onto the grid which could open up the opportunity for new riders to enter the World Superbike paddock.

Replacing Xavi Fores in the Kawasaki Puccetti Racing Team is Lucas Mahias who is moving from WorldSSP where he won the Championship in 2017 and finishes 2nd in this year’s championship for the Kawasaki team.

Making his debut appearance at Estoril, a circuit he has not competed at before, will be Belgian rider Loris Cresson for the (OUTDO Kawasaki TPR) team riding a Kawasaki ZX-10RR. The 22 year has competed in WorldSSP for the last three years.

Make sure you set your alarms for next weekend’s racing at Estoril.

Featured Image courtesy of Ducati

Round 4 of the WorldSBK Superpole and Race 1 took place at MotorLand Aragon with the reigning Champion, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) taking his 25th pole position of his WorldSBK career and smashing the lap record in doing so. Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) will start second on the grid followed by Scott Redding on the (ARUBA.IT Racing – Ducati)

The starting grid for Race 1 looked like this:

Row 1 : Rea : Baz : Redding Row 2: Lowes : Rinaldi : Haslam

Row 3 : Bautista : van der Mark : Davies Row 4 : Scheib : Razgatlioglu : Gerloff

Row 5 : Fores : Sykes : Mercado Row 6 : Caricasulo : Ponsson : Laverty

Row 7 : Melandri : Barrier : Ramos Row 8 : Takahashi : Gabellini

With 18 laps of racing, Race 1 gets underway with Rea not getting off to a great start as Baz is in the lead by the first corner followed by Rea, Lowes and Redding but by the end of the first lap, Baz is down into fourth having had Rea, Lowes and Redding all pass him.

Bautista, who started off in 7th has not had a good start to the race and went backwards to 12th with Razgatlioglu and Haslam swapping places.

Rea sets the fastest lap on Lap 3 but Lowes is hot on his heels closely followed by Redding who is piling on the pressure. Redding passes on the inside of Lowes, Lowes tries to duck back past but doesn’t manage to get past and now Redding has his sights on Rea.

Exiting out of Turn 3 on Lap 4, Lowes’ bike highsides throwing him off into the middle of the track but luckily he quickly gets to his feet and off the track having thankfully been missed by the other riders behind him. An unfortunate end to his race.

Davies has passed van der Mark up into 3rd which means that at the moment both Ducati’s are in for a podium position. Rea and Redding are starting to pull out a lead but meanwhile Laverty, who is in 15th place, has received a ride through penalty as his mechanics were working on his bike on the grid before the start of the race and he has now dropped to 18th place.

Gerloff hits trouble on Lap 7 and is now running in last place whilst Redding is putting pressure on Rea and on the start/finish line going into lap 8, Redding neatly pulls past Rea, Rea is looking to get straight back past but can’t match the power of the Ducati on the straights. Razgatlioglu passes Bautista up into 6th place with Baz, who started 3rd on the grid, now down in 8th place.

By Lap 11, Davies, who is still in 3rd place has pulled out a gap between 4th place and has his sights set on Rea. Rea doesn’t seem to have an answer to the speed of the Ducati on the straights but is up with Redding on the corners.

Lap 13 we see Scheib rejoin the track down in 18th place, Bautista crashes out at Turn 5 ending his race and Rinaldi is up into 5th place. The following lap Rea, so very nearly gets past Redding on a left hander but he then runs wide meaning the gap between him and Davies just got a lot shorter.

Davies passes Rea on lap 16 up into 2nd place with Rea doing all he can to get the place back but to no avail, Davies makes the overtake stick and is now catching up with his teammate and is pushing to close the gap.

The last lap sees Davies reeling Redding in but he doesn’t have enough time left to catch him, Davies must be desperately hoping Redding will make a mistake but Redding keeps his cool and passes the chequered flag first closely followed by Davies and Rea in 3rd place.

A fantastic top two finish for Ducati and Redding is now at the top of the Championship leaderboard.

What will Race 2 on sunday, bring us? I can’t wait to find out.

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Featured Image courtesy of Ducati

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.

BK

Featured Image courtesy of Ducati