Saturday wrap from Aragon WorldSBK season opener

2022 FIM Superbike World Championship
Round One – Aragon – Saturday

WorldSBK Race One

Jonathan Rea took his KRT Ninja ZX-10RR to victory in the first race of the 2022 season after 18 laps of constant battling with first two, and then one, of his expected championship rivals.  Pole-sitter Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista both ran with Rea for most of the race before Razgatlioglu ultimately had to back off in the final laps due to excessive front tyre wear.

In the final lap, with Razgatlioglu slowing, Rea had to fight Bautista for the what was to be a famous win. Jonathan led onto the back straight but was passed by the Spanish rider as they approached the braking zone. Rea made a decisive move on the inside line into the final corner, holding his advantage on the exit and winning by just 0.090 seconds. With Bautista second, Razgatliolgu was third, 5.416 seconds behind Rea.

Jonathan Rea – P1

“It was a nice race and an exciting one. I really enjoyed the battle. I think we really showed the strength of our bike. It was very agile, stable on the brakes, and I could change direction. The work we did in the off-season, focusing on the softer tyres in the SCX family, is really bearing fruit now. I was able to be very fast until the end with a soft tyre, in a very cool temperature. Even before the race we were thinking, ‘OK, we have done all this work but we had never, ever made this SCX work in 24°C of track temperature’. So big credit to my team, Kawasaki and Showa because it was a really big win for us to do that. Not just to win the first round of the championship but the way we did it. We have two more opportunities tomorrow that we have to maximise. But today I am really happy.”

Alvaro Bautista – P2

“I’m very very happy with this race. If have to be honest, winning wasn’t my only goal. After two years that weren’t easy, I needed to rediscover those sensations that you only get when you’re fighting for the win. I immediately felt that feeling which allowed me to try until the end. The battle with Toprak first and then with Jonathan was exciting. I had a lot of fun and I hope I was able to entertain my fans as well. We just need a small step forward for tomorrow“.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu – P3

“For me not an easy race but after a good pole position, I tried my best. Normally for Yamaha this is not the strongest track, but I am fighting in the first laps for the win. But, in the last laps I start to drop back because the front tyre grip had a big drop and I start to feel the front sliding. But, third position is okay for today, even if I want more! The championship is very long, you know. Also, we take good points for the championship and tomorrow I will try again for a good position. Every day we are improving and we will try to find a bike set up that improves the front grip.”

Michael Rinaldi confirmed in the race the fourth place obtained in qualifying. The Italian rider stayed with the podium group until lap 10, trying to push to attack Razgatlioglu. In the end, however, his race pace was not enough to fight for the podium and he secures a valuable fourth place.

Michael Rinaldi – P4

“I’m pretty happy with the way we started the season. I was sure I could have a good race and I felt good in the first few laps. Unfortunately, when the rear grip dropped, the feeling with the bike dropped and I couldn’t stick with the podium group. We already know what we can do to improve and for this reason I’m very confident ahead of tomorrow’s races“.

Andrea Locatelli maximised the performance of his package today, managing available grip with consistent pace throughout the 18-lap feature race to deliver a solid fifth-place finish – all despite a hectic opening lap which saw him initially slip to eighth.

Andrea Locatelli – P5

“It’s a good result for us to start the season in the top five – it’s not so bad, but I am not really happy about today because in the start of the race I lost a lot of places. So, I had to try and recover and I wanted to be able to try and close the gap with the front group but in the end it was not possible. We need to work a little bit more for tomorrow, but for sure we have seen that this track it is not easy for us. Now we will try to improve the bike set up to stay close to the front and see if we can fight for the podium tomorrow. We have a lot of data from the first race so let’s see what we can do.”

HRC riders Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge, both rookies in the production-derived series, crossed the line a strong sixth and seventh in their debut WorldSBK race. Lecuona made a very strong start and was straight up to fifth through the first turns. Vierge made a similarly rapid start, making up five places through the first corners to place eighth at the end of lap one.

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Losing just a little ground in the opening stages, Lecuona maintained a strong pace and sixth place throughout the central part of the race, just ahead of his team-mate Vierge, who dealt with the pain and fatigue caused by recent injury to defend an impressive seventh place.

Iker Lecuona – P6

“I’m really very happy, as we’ve made a very good start in Superbike today. The first target was to complete a consistent race and then, of course, to score as strong a result as possible. I didn’t know what to expect in this morning’s qualifying, as it was totally new for me with these tyres, but it went very well, honestly. I lapped alone and finished seventh, not a bad position at all. Then in the race I didn’t expect P6 to be honest, but I made a very good start and was able to overtake a couple of guys in the first corner, so I immediately realised I had good pace. At a certain point, I lost the leading group but throughout the race my team-mate and I were able to gain a few seconds on those chasing us. We must continue to work and improve of course, but the bike has strong potential. It’s also great to be racing at home and have the fans back here supporting us. Feeling this support is fantastic. Tomorrow we have another great opportunity, so we’ll analyse today’s data and see what we can do in the next two races.”

Xavi Vierge – P7

“I’m really happy because we started this weekend having no idea whether we could finish the race. I broke a rib in testing at Barcelona only a couple of weeks ago and so to finish this first race, and with a good result too, represents a great start for us. I struggled a lot this morning to be honest and then in the race, I just focused on staying calm and trying to ride smoothly in order to reach the line. So this is important, because I’ve understood how to go fast without overdoing things physically speaking. Now we’ll check the data and see if we can take another small step tomorrow. Everything is new for me with the Honda of course, but we’ve improved with each exit and, step by step, I’m learning how to exploit the bike’s potential, so I’m very pleased. I want to thank my physiotherapist for helping me get here today and my team for supporting me in every way.”

American Garrett Gerloff dropped a couple of places on the start, and had to fight his way back through. In the closing stages, the 26-year-old managed to climb back inside the top 10 with strong late pace, eventually finishing ninth as the Top Independent Rider.

Garrett Gerloff – P9

“I’m disappointed with the qualifying because we’ve been top five all winter, so I was expecting to be in the first two rows. Because of that, I had a difficult beginning of the race, but the bike was feeling good and I had strong pace at the end, finishing inside the top 10. I want more than that, but I’m happy to be top Independent Rider for my GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team, and now we have a clear plan for tomorrow, where we’ll try to push more.”

Ukranian Illia Mykalchyk (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was the first BWM rider in eighth place in what was his first WorldSBK race as the World Endurance specialist stands in for the injured Michael Van der Mark.

Misfortune struck for Alex Lowes as he was sitting in a strong fifth place, at the head of the riders chasing the leading group. He fell at Turn 12 on lap seven and could not restart. Alex had qualified fifth in Superpole and started the race from the second row of the grid.

Alex Lowes – DNF

“The race was obviously disappointing, even more so because we have worked all winter on used tyres and being consistent. I think we just made some mistakes with the setting on the bike. It is frustrating really that with the experience we have got we ended up where we are. We all have to take responsibility. Congratulations to Jonathan and all his crew because it was a mega race win for KRT, so it was nice for us to start the year with a win. We have a lot to do to get me feeling comfortable, as right now we are not working as I expect. We have work to do.”

WorldSBK Race One Results

WorldSBK Qualifying Results

WorldSSP600

Lorenzo Baldassarri (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team) took his first WorldSSP victory on his debut in the category. He became the seventh rider to win on their debut, following the path of 2020 WorldSSP Champion Andrea Locatelli who had also won his first race.

While fighting for the win with Aegerter, Baldassari had a major save after almost losing the front of his bike at the final corner of the final lap: “In the last corners, I risked two times to crash and then in the last corner I completely lost the front. In the end, I recover the bike and I passed Dominique. I don’t know how we managed not to crash. It was a great start of the season for sure.”

Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Team) claimed second position after having lost precious time in an incident with Baldassari in the last corner of the race: “The last corner was critical, and we were fighting until the end. Baldassari lost the front, touching me a little bit on my shoulder. I went off the track and could go on and finish second. These 20 points are nice to take.”

Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) completd the podium in third as he finished 5.7s ahead of Glenn van Straalen (EAB Racing Team): “I’m happy. I tried my best, but I did some mistakes. The team did a great job. During the test, we had a big problem and they managed to found solution. I’ll try to do better results tomorrow.”

Rookie Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) finished in fifth place for his first race in the category as the Ducati Panigale V2 made its WorldSSP debut. Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) completes the top six for the new MV Agusta F3 800 RR after a strong showing, just a second away from Bulega. With Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph) claiming seventh position, all five manufacturers on the 2022 grid finished inside the top seven for the official debuts of the Supersport “Next Generation”.

Oli Bayliss started from 26th on the grid and worked hard to make up ground back in the pack, crossing the line in eventual 21st position and finishing a race that will provide useful data as he prepares for Sunday’s action.

Oli Bayliss – P21

“For my first race, I can be happy. We had some issues during qualifying and it’s not easy starting the race from so far back, especially if you don’t have experience, but I was able to make up some positions so it’s all good. For tomorrow, we’re already planning to make some small changes to take another step forward and I’m sure we will be able to improve in race 2.”

WorldSSP600 Race Results

WorldSSP600 Aragon Qualifying Times

WorldSSP300

Marc Garcia (Yamaha MS Racing) won from pole position and claimed the fastest lap, becoming the first rider to score a pole-fastest lap-win hat-trick since Ana Carrasco at Donington Park in 2018. “It was an amazing day. Pole position and then the race was perfect. It was a bit difficult to manage the big gap, I tried to stay always in the same lap time, and I hope to repeat tomorrow.”

Alvaro Diaz (Arco Motor University Team) finished in second place, claiming his second podium in the category; “I’m very happy. The race was very difficult because of the wind. This is my first podium of the season in WorldSSP300, so I’m very happy. It was difficult to ride on my own, in the last two laps I did some mistakes and I think it’s more difficult to finish the race because it’s difficult to stay focus. Tomorrow, I think I can fight for the victory.”

Lennox Lehmann (Freudenberg KTM – Paligo Racing) recovered from starting 25th to finish 3rd, claiming his first WorldSSP300 podium. The KTM RC390 rider recorded the highest top speed in the race at 218.2 km/h. “It’s a perfect start of the season even though the Superpole was quite bad with 25th position. We knew we had a good pace for the weekend, but we were not expecting to be that good to fight for a podium. From the start, the KTM was quite good, I recovered five positions from the start and again more positions on the straight. I think tomorrow it’s possible to fight again for the podium, if there is a big group fighting.”

Victor Steeman (MTM Kawasaki) finished in fourth for Kawasaki while his teammate at MTM Kawasaki, Yuta Okaya, was fifth just a tenth behind. Inigo Iglesias (SMW Racing) completed the top six despite running in the lead group before his Long Lap Penalty.

Harry Khouri unfortunately crashed at Turn 12 early in the race. The Young Aussie remounted to try and continue the race but ultimately retired to the pits.

WorldSSP300 Race One Results

WorldSSP300 Qualifying Times

2022 Motul FIM Superbike World Championship
Round One – Aragon – Schedule – AEST

Sunday

2022 WorldSBK Calendar