WorldSBK/SSP/SSP300 Saturday round up from Assen | Aussies in the points

2022 FIM Superbike World Championship
Round Two – Assen

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) started well from pole position in the opening WorldSBK race of the weekend at Assen overnight, moving into the lead ahead of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and their team-mates, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK).

During the fourth lap, the six-time world champion gained the upper hand over the number-one rider for the lead, holding onto it for the entire first half of the race, whereas Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati), thanks to an outstanding pace, moved into the podium position to bring up the rear of a tightly packed trio.

The final laps were spectacular, with the Ducati riders constantly nipping at Razgatlioglu’s heels for second. After overtaking the Yamaha, Bautista launched multiple attacks on Jonathan Rea, all the way to the final chicane, but the Kawasaki rider defended extremely well, managing to finish first.

Bautista finished just one tenth of a second behind him with Razgatlioglu third.

Five different manufacturers finished in the first six positions with an excellent result for Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) in sixth, and for Iker Lecuona (Team HRC), finishing fifth behind Andrea Locatelli.

Jonathan Rea – P1

“The race was a difficult one because with Toprak in the front I felt much faster. When I went to the front I felt like I did not want to destroy my tyre, so I just conserved my pace. He wasn’t coming back at me again so I thought, ‘just keep the rhythm.’ Then I saw Alvaro come through and he was really close. I had not much in reserve but I knew in the last three laps I could maximise the bike and really push on. It was giving me really good feedback. There were just a couple of weak areas where I needed to be careful, defend a little bit and make no mistakes. In the stronger areas I was able to put in some power and take another Assen win.”

Alvaro Bautista – P2

“If have to be honest, I really enjoyed myself today. Starting from the second row wasn’t easy because I had to fight with some riders before I could get to the podium group. The battle with Toprak first and then Jonny was really good. I tried to attack Jonny, but in the end I also thought about not risking Toprak’s attack. I’m very happy”.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu – P3

“Today I tried my best, but in the race I am feeling some tyre problem and I just try to keep fighting – also third position finish and we take good points for the championship. As you know, we try today for the best but I need now the win. I am always third position, for me not enough. But, tomorrow I am fighting for the win again. We will see, maybe tomorrow I take a different approach to the race – okay not easy because everybody is very fast. Johnny and Alvaro are very fast, but we will see, I think we can improve.”

Andrea Locatelli – P4

“For us it was a good day because we closed in P4. It was not easy in the middle of the race to try to stay with the front group, but in the end I’m really happy because yesterday I didn’t have the best feeling with the bike. We improved a lot this morning and in the first 10 laps, I could stay with the front group – so for me it is a big improvement and now we have a lot of data to prepare the bike for tomorrow, because I want to stay with the front group to the end. Of course when we arrived here, my goal was to try and take some podiums but it is not easy! The big improvement during the race means tomorrow we can get something more and push harder to try to take a podium.”

Iker Lecuona – P5

“Fifth is a good result, our best so far in fact, so we are happy enough. The start was OK, I fought a little bit through the first laps with Gerloff, then I found myself riding alone for a while and, during that phase, I wasn’t losing too much with respect to the frontrunners. The gap eventually increased, and then I was involved in a long battle with Baz. He passed me but I got back past him and then defended my position all the way to the line; he was stronger in some parts of the track, me in others. I enjoyed the race and I’m happy with the pace we had and with the final result. After this morning’s crash I had lost a bit of confidence but by speaking with my manager and my team I was able to remain calm and focus on the fact that we’d been working well up until that point and had the potential to fight for the top five. I also wish to say a big thank you to the team because they worked very hard to repair the bike and we were ultimately able to make another little step forward. We want to fight for the podium of course, and we are not yet there but we are working very hard to reach that level.”

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Garrett Gerloff – P8

“I’m happy with the Superpole as my goal was to be top six. We improved the bike every session and this is another positive aspect. For the race, we tried analyse the data we had and decided to go out with the SC0 on the rear, the harder compound. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much grip at the beginning and in the end, I was quick but not quick enough. The choice didn’t pay off in the end, but we learned the lesson and have a more clear idea for tomorrow.”

Michael Rinaldi – DNF

“It was a difficult Saturday. We had a problem in FP3 that forced us to fix the bike and in qualifying, after losing the rear, I had to drop the bike to avoid worse consequences. Anyway, I am satisfied with what I did in the race, starting very well and being able to stay with Alvaro for many laps. I tried to push and I crashed but the feeling with the bike wasn’t the same when the tyres went down. We have to solve this problem”.

Alex Lowes – DNF

“Today was a positive day but unfortunately we ended up with no points. Sometimes it can be frustrating because you have to learn that when some things are out of your control, you should not get annoyed. If I look at my performance, and the performance of my team, the guys and the bike we had, we did a good job. In Superpole qualifying I was really happy, we were under the lap record, but unfortunately Toprak was another chunk faster than us. In the race I was hanging in there pretty well, with a bit better pace than I expected. So I was happy with that but unfortunately in the incident with Locatelli his bike just flicked a stone up and it went through the oil-cooler. So, we had to retire. It wasn’t my fault or the team’s fault, it was just a little bit of bad luck. But this is racing and tomorrow we have another two races to try and do a bit better.”

WorldSBK Race Results

WorldSBK Championship Points

WorldSBK Assen 2022 Superpole

WorldSSP

Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) won the opening WorldSSP race at Assen despite the race being red flag with five laps to go. When the red flag was shown, and the results taken from the last timing point, Aegerter’s margin of victory was just 0.081s. He declared: “I’m really happy with the 25 points. The Red Flag came out five laps before the end of the race so I was surprised. I had a very good pace, also this morning with the Superpole new lap record. Ten Kate Racing Yamaha made a fantastic job and I’m super happy to give them a victory at their home round.”

Glenn van Straalen (EAB Racing Team) finished second, claiming his first ever podium in the category for his home round. Van Straalen had taken the race lead in the early stages until Aegerter made his move through the right-hander of Turns 13 and 14 on Lap 14 of the scheduled 18. The Dutchman said: “It was tight. We left the race with the two of us. My start was not so good so I need to come from far, but I made it to the field and then it was just the three of us. Aegerter followed me on the pace. It was very nice to lead the race at your home round. We have a good pace and I’m happy with that. We will try to find something in the race data and be better tomorrow.”

Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) had a good start as he led the race in the early first laps before being demoted to third place by Aegerter and van Straalen. The Italian rider claimed his second podium of the season. He said: “It was a good race for me with another podium in the end. I’m happy about the race, especially the first laps because I was leading the race. The last laps I started to lose a little bit of time. We need to find solution for when the tyres start to drop. But we are here.”

Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) was fourth, claiming his best result of the season so far, while Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing) finished in fifth place. Patrick Hobelsberger (Kallio Racing) completed the top six, his best result in WorldSSP so far.

Another rider to break through for his best WorldSSP result was young Aussie Oli Bayliss. Oli managed to set a good lap time in the Superpole (1:38.849), almost two seconds faster than his Friday time which put him P18 on the grid.

In the race Oli suffered in the early stages where he found himself in the middle of the pack, involved in a series of overtakes and counter-overtakes, but when he was able to pick up his pace he showed a consistent pace between 1:39.5 and 1:40.2. Oliver gained positions both by overtaking and benefiting from a few retirements. Thids allowed him to enter in the points zone with five laps to go. On lap 13 the race was red-flagged and the classification was frozen. Bayliss was in P14 at the time and that gave him his first two championship points.

Oli Bayliss

“Today was a good day: I improved my lap time a lot compared to yesterday and this allowed me to start ahead of Aragon, which will be an advantage tomorrow. In the race we had the same pace as the group that was three or four seconds ahead of me, in race two I hope to stay close to the riders who are fighting for points.”

Countryman Tom Edwards was making a guest appearance on a YART Yamaha and qualified 29th in the 32-rider field but had to start from the back of the grid due to some issue. Then in the race he was given a ride through penalty, but after failing to come in and serve that penalty he was then black flagged and disqualified from the race.

WorldSSP Race Results

WorldSSP Championship Points

WorldSSP300

Starting from pole position, Victor Steeman (MTM Kawasaki) claimed his second win in WorldSSP300, the first one at his home round, with Samuel Di Sora (Leader Team Flembbo) in second. The pair managed to escape at the front, as they battled throughout the 14-lap race. Only 0.038s separated the two on the finish line with Steeman taking the advantage when the Frenchman ran wide at Turn 9 of the last lap.

Steeman commented his race: “The race was good. I tried to go away but Di Sora stayed behind me. I had the feeling that I had a little bit more pace, especially first three sectors, maybe in the last one Di Sora was a bit better. I tried to always be in front, so the gap was getting bigger and bigger. In the last laps, I saw he made some mistakes in some corner where I had different lines. My strategy was to pass him in the last left corner, the fast now, because I am normally very strong there. In the end I didn’t need to, and it feels amazing to take the win in Assen.”

Di Sora explained: “It was a very fast race with Victor. He was leading for most of the race, and we were helping each other to escape at the front. The strategy was to let him pass before the final sector, but I went a bit too wide. I lost too much time. He closed the door very well at the last chicane. P2 is great in the end. Aragon was very tough for us so being on the front row on the grid and finishing in second fighting for the win with such a gap, we’re very happy about it.”

8.8s behind the leading group, it was Mirko Gennai (BrCorse Team) in third after an amazing battle between eight riders. The Italian rider claimed his first ever WorldSSP300 podium and said: “It was a difficult race. I had a lot of riders in front of me. I tried to overtake many of them and in the last lap, I overtook the last rider of my group to get third place. It’s my first podium in WorldSSP300 and I’m very excited. Tomorrow, I want to fight for another podium to get more points for the Championship.”

Yuta Okaya (MTM Kawasaki) finished just outside the podium in fourth, 0.124s behind Gennai and 0.06s ahead of Hugo De Cancellis (Prodina Racing WorldSSP300) in fifth. 2017 WorldSSP300 Champion Marc Garcia (Yamaha MS Racing) crossed the finish line in sixth place maintaining his Championship lead.

Harry Khouri picked up his first three-points for the season with an excellent 14th place finish.

WorldSSP300Race Results

WorldSSP300 Championship Points

2022 WorldSBK Calendar

2022 WSBK Round Two – Assen schedule