Ducati dominate Catalunya WorldSBK – All class wrap

2022 FIM Superbike World Championship
Round Eight – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

WorldSBK Superpole Race

The Tissot Superpole Race for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship had a familiar start to Race 1 but a very different feel at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the Catalunya Round as Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) claimed his second win on home soil. It means Bautista will line up from first for Race 2 at 14:00 Local Time (GMT+2) after he, once again, got a lightning start on the grid as the lights went out.

Bautista started the 10-lap race from fifth place but, like in Race 1 yesterday, got a lightning start to move into the lead before Turn 1. From there, he was able to stretch his gap throughout the race to claim victory by more than a second ahead of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in second, and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK).

Lowes was running in second until Turn 1 on the final lap when his team-mate overtook him to move ahead and limit Bautista’s gain in the Championship standings.

Despite a poor start and dropping down to tenth, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) claimed fourth spot after a battle with Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), with the reigning Champion passing Rinaldi at Turn 1 at the start of Lap 5 with a move up the inside.

Philipp Oettl (Team Goeleven) on the second row after the German rookie took a career-best sixth place.

Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) moved up the field to claim seventh place ahead of Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) in ninth.

Baz had a scrap with Race 1 podium finisher Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) in the closing stages of the race, with the pair often swapping positions, but Baz was able to hold on to P9.

There was drama for riders who started inside the front two rows on the opening lap. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) had an incident at Turn 10, with Lecuona retiring from the race and Locatelli re-joining in last place.

WorldSBK Superpole Race Results

WorldSBK Race Two

Starting from pole position, Bautista once again led the race into Turn 1, before remaining unchallenged as he extended his gap at the front with the Championship leader able to take advantage of the squabbling behind him to claim victory.

By the halfway mark of the race, Bautista’s gap had got up to five seconds and he continued to increase that throughout the second half of the race to claim victory by more than eight seconds.

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Behind Bautista, the battle for second was taking place between four riders. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing), Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) all fought it out for the remaining podium places, with the pair often swapping places.

In the end, it was Bautista’s teammate Rinaldi who claimed second place after a thrilling battle, with the crucial move for Rinaldi coming on Lap 11 at Turn 1, when he passed Bassani.

As Rinaldi escaped in second place, Razgatlioglu, Rea and Bassani continued their fight with Rea moving into third place on Lap 14 as he passed both Razgatlioglu and Bassani into Turn 1.

Razgatlioglu got ahead of Bassani on Lap 13 after the Italian rider made a mistake at Turn 12, which then allowed Rea to get ahead a lap later.

However, on Lap 16, Rea lost a lot of time after running wide at Turn 7 which allowed both Bassani and Razgatlioglu through, although he did re-pass Bassani shortly afterwards, with Razgatlioglu going on to take third place.

The results allowed Bautista to extend his Championship lead to 59 points over Razgatlioglu, a gain of 29 points across the weekend, as he took his first treble since Aragon 2019 and the fourth of his career.

Rea, after re-passing Bassani after his mistake, was able to pull out a gap to take fourth place ahead of the Italian who took fifth place.

Behind Bassani came a run of three rookies who all had a strong Race 2. Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) took sixth place after taking advantage of his Superpole Race result to finish in the top six, ahead of Philipp Oettl (Team Goeleven) in seventh place.

Oettl, like Vierge, gained on the grid in the Superpole Race and took advantage to conclude a strong Catalunya Round in seventh place. He was ahead of Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) in eighth place with Lecuona, who took pole in the Tissot Superpole session, taking another top-ten finish.

Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) finished as the lead BMW rider in ninth place, finishing just 0.084s behind Lecuona at the end of the race.

The end of the race was highlighted by a charge from Roberto Tamburini (Yamaha Motoxraxing WorldSBK Team) as the Italian rookie surged into the top ten in the closing stages, taking his best WorldSBK result to date.

Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) was classified in 16th place 20-lap race. The Italian rider was running inside the top ten but a Turn 10 crash on Lap 4 dropped him down the order after he re-joined the action, with Locatelli having to fight to take 16th place and missing out on a point by 2.6s.

Two riders crashed out of the race on the opening lap with Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) going down at Turn 10 and Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) crashing at Turn 14; putting both riders out of the race.

Redding was taken to the medical centre for a check-up following his crash, and was declared fit but diagnosed with a chest bruise. On Lap 5, Christophe Ponsson (Gil Motor Sport-Yamaha) retired from the race following a Turn 10 crash. Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) had enjoyed a strong weekend but, in Race 2, crashed out at Turn 2 on Lap 12.

WorldSBK Race Two Results

WorldSBK Rider Quotes

Alvaro Bautista

“I am really super happy. It was a beautiful weekend but don’t think it was easy. It’s true, we won all the races, even by a margin, but only because the work we did with the team was really good. I am happy to have given my family, my friends and the many fans who came to Barcelona some good emotions. The season, however, is still long. We have to stay focused”.

Michael Rinaldi

“The feeling and the sensations were good. I knew it would be important to do a good Superpole Race, in order to start from the front or the second row. I made a good start and in the first few laps, even though the competition was fierce, I still tried to manage the tyres. I was consistent and in the end, the strategy proved to be the right one. I am very happy, it is really a good moment but we cannot be satisfied. We still have to improve.”

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu

“Overall a really difficult weekend. Yesterday we started very good but finished the race P5 because we are eating the rear tyre too much… I tried to race with Alvaro, this is normal, but this lap-time was too much for the tyre life.

“Today, my plan was just to follow Johnny, Bassani and Rinaldi, because I know we cannot race Alvaro here, I remember from yesterday! I just keep the rear tyre because I understand first position is not possible this race and I focus on trying for the podium. I am happy because again we are there.

“Not a normal weekend for us, but anyway, we take good points and keep P2 in the championship. In Portimão I think we are fighting for the win again but we will see, we have many races left and I want to win as many as possible!”

Jonathan Rea

“In the Superpole race it went as planned. I got one of the best starts of the season, which has been a tough area at times. That changed the dynamic of my race because I was in a good track position straight away. Alex’s pace was amazing in the Superpole Race. I could see after ten laps that I had good tyre, even compared to Alvaro.

“I was quite optimistic going into Race Two. For the long race the temperature was eight degrees hotter than yesterday. I expected a tough race but honestly, I think the rhythm was more consistent than yesterday.

“In Race Two, with six laps to go, I found a false neutral in T7. I went into that corner with no engine brake, the front was jumping and I was trying everything not to crash. I tried to salvage a podium but I ran out of laps.

“I’m frustrated because I think we deserved a little bit more, but it wasn’t to be. Coming to Barcelona I expected a very tough weekend, with the tyre consumption, speed, with everything. Finally we got out with a 2-2-4 weekend, which was better than expected.”

Alex Lowes

“It was nice to be back on the podium this morning in the Superpole Race, especially at the team’s home track. But, it was a shame to end the weekend with a fall. I got swallowed up off the start. It was a good start but we lost a bit on acceleration so I got passed by a few guys.

“I managed to make some good moves in the first part of the lap and got in behind Toprak. As the bike was sliding it came back into line with a full fuel tank, it just pushed the front a little bit. I had gone for the hard front tyre compared to what I used this morning and it didn’t have enough grip. It just caught me out.

“I don’t think we had the pace for the podium in the long race but I think we have made some improvements on the bike from yesterday, so that would have been interesting to see if we could have kept the used tyres going a bit more.

“I am not going to let that second race take away from anything because this is a tough track for me, a tough track for the bike in some ways, and I have been so happy with my speed and feeling from the bike. Big thanks to the team because they have been busy all week with extra stuff to do. So, it was nice to get a good result in qualifying and a good result this morning in the Superpole Race.”

Garrett Gerloff

“Well, from one day to another, things changed a lot. In the Superpole Race the feeling wasn’t too bad, but I struggled a bit with the tyres and we couldn’t make it into the top nine. In Race 2 we went back to what we knew, but I got stuck at the beginning and eventually lost places. I tried to fight back, and the pace was not bad, but then I crashed. I’m sorry to the team, but we’ll be back in Portimao to try and build on our encouraging pace.”

Xavi Vierge

“In the end, we were able to finish our weekend here in Barcelona in a very positive way, with a seventh- and a sixth-place finish. Above all, we learned a lot, especially from yesterday’s experience when we decided to go into Race 1 with a different tyre to what we had originally planned.

“We studied all the data, worked hard on the electronics and today used the tyre that we had originally thought could be good for us, and it was! We managed the tyre wear much better than yesterday, considering that the only rider who maintained the same pace until the end was Alvaro, who completed an amazing weekend.

“The rest of the field struggled towards the end of the races so today, having learned from yesterday, I realised mid-race that I couldn’t maintain a 1’42 pace so I slowed my rhythm in order to get to the end with the tyre. We must work on this of course, something we’ll do during testing, but over the race weekends we need to focus on what we have and try to exploit that to the full over the remaining races.”

Andrea Locatelli

“Another difficult day for us, I start well immediately in Race 2 and was in a good position on the fourth lap, in P6 or P7. But we were unlucky because in Turn 10, unfortunately I lose the front. It was a shame, because when I restarted, the feeling on the bike was not so bad, plus the rhythm was good. We see now on the data that maybe we could have fought for fifth position and it could have been a nice result. In the end, it was a difficult weekend but also some positive points because we were fast, and this is a good improvement. But, it was a bit unlucky here in Barcelona and now we look forward for Portimão to try to push immediately. The most important point this weekend was to return to being fast and we confirmed this, we will continue working and see for the next race.”

Iker Lecuona

“This weekend has been a hard one for us, with only a few bright moments where we highlighted our potential and our speed. Today I felt good enough in warm-up and could maintain good pace. In the Superpole race, I was up to the front in the first lap but then as I went to pass Locatelli through turn 10, I lost the front and crashed. It was a bit unexpected, honestly, and of course I want to apologize to Andrea (Locatelli) because he ran into the gravel and it was my fault.

“Then we modified something on the bike for race 2 but I realised right from the first braking point into corner one that we were going to struggle all the way, so I did my best, made a few passes and then tried to stay with Xavi, trying to conserve the tyres. It wasn’t easy because I wasn’t perfectly comfortable with the braking and had to manage a big drop on tyre performance towards the end, but I did all I could to finish the race as well as possible. We will concentrate our work on this area as we prepare for the next races.”

WorldSBK Championship Points

WorldSSP Race Two

Dominique Aegerter started from pole position but dropped back at the start of the race and had to battle his way back up to the lead group in order to limit the damage in the Championship standings.

After he worked his way back up to fourth place, Aegerter ran wide at Turn 1 on Lap 12, costing him more time as he looked to overtake Lorenzo Baldassarri (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team), Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph) with the four riders leading the race.

The reigning Champion put in a series of fast laps to catch back up with the group, and soon started picking his way through the three riders ahead of him.

On Lap 15, Aegerter went from fourth to second with one move on the inside at Turn 1 before he, on the same lap, passed long-time leader Oncu at Turn 4 to take his 12th win of the season, equaling Andrea Locatelli’s record for wins in a season, and his 30th WorldSSP podium, as he extended his Championship lead to 36 points over Baldassarri.

While Aegerter was able to extend the gap to over two seconds by the end of the race, there was a fierce battle for second, third and fourth between Oncu, Manzi and Baldassarri.

Eventually, Oncu and Manzi pulled a gap to Baldassarri of two seconds and the pair battled right until the end of the race for second.

Manzi did cross the line in second place but he was demoted one place for exceeding track limits at Turn 9 on the final lap, promoting Oncu to second and Manzi to third.

Oncu’s second place was his seventh career podium while Manzi took his third podium and Triumph’s 10th in WorldSSP after starting from 17th on the grid.

Baldassarri claimed fourth place and he had more than a four-second advantage ahead of Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) in fifth place. Tuuli had crossed the line behind Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing) but the Italian rider was demoted one place for exceeding track limits on the final lap, promoting Tuuli to fifth with Caricasulo in sixth place.

In seventh place was Bahattin Sofuoglu (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) as the Turkish rookie claimed the honours for best-placed WorldSSP Challenge rider. He was only 0.001s ahead of Yari Montella (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) who claimed ninth place. Despite a strong start, Montella dropped back in the closing stages and claimed a top-eight finish.

Dominique Aegerter – P1

“It’s been a perfect weekend, taking maximum points here in Barcelona. From Friday we were already fast and then the lap record and pole on Saturday morning with a second gap and then two race wins, it was an impressive performance. Today’s race was very difficult, Saturday’s race was shortened, but today every rider was fighting hard and was afraid of using too much of their tyre. I was behind at the start and I tried to get to the top three but there were five or six of us all fighting. I then made a mistake at turn one with the slipstream when fighting for the lead and had to go through the long lap lane to re-join which left me even more behind. I pushed hard and closed the gap and got to the front. I think it was a very enjoyable race to watch from the outside and it was fun to race in!”

Oli Bayliss had managed to climb from his P23 start up to P15 but with eight laps to go he crashed at Turn 8.

Oli Bayliss – DNF

“It was an unlucky race, after a good start that allowed me to gain a couple of positions already in the first lap, I got into my rhythm and – like yesterday – I managed to recover several positions. Unfortunately, halfway through the race I lost the front and ended up on the ground. We have been conditioned by qualifying and we must to improve in Superpole because in the last rounds we have always shown that our pace would allow us to be consistently in the top 10“.

WorldSSP Race Two Results

WorldSSP Championship Points

WorldSSP300 Race Two

Dutch rider Steeman was able to break free from the chasing back as he claimed victory in Barcelona, despite dropping down the order in the early stages. He moved back to the front after a couple of laps and broke away as the chasing pack battled it out for the podium spots, with the pack unable to utilise the slipstream to gain back ground

Steeman’s victory, coupled with Diaz finishing in fourth place, means the title race will go to the final round in Portimao. The pair are separated by 50 points, with 50 points remaining, but Steeman would be able to overtake Diaz on countback. Steeman’s victory did, however, secure the Teams’ Championship for MTM Kawasaki.

Steeman’s margin of victory over Hugo De Cancellis (Prodina Racing WorldSSP300) was 5.618s at the end of the 12-lap race, with De Cancellis initially crossing the line in third place behind Mirko Gennai (Team BrCorse). Gennai was penalised with a one-place drop for exceeding track limits on the final lap, although he kept the third podium of his career. De Cancellis’ second place meant he took his seventh podium in WorldSSP300.

Championship leader Alvaro Diaz (Arco Motor University Team) finished in fourth place and was just 0.046s behind Gennai in the classification, ending a podium streak of seven in a race where a podium finish would have secured him the title.

Young Aussie Harry Khouri crossed the line in 25th place, 23-seconds behind the race winner.

WorldSSP300 Race Two Results

WorldSSP300 Championship Points

2022 WorldSBK Calendar