MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

World Superbike race two would be missing Loris Baz as his leg and ankle were fractured in the contact made between him and Alex Lowes this morning. Aegerter had to drop one position due to irresponsible racing in an incident with Danilo Petrucci at the end of this morning's race. Remy Gardner weathered his gastroenteritis to make the start. The weather remained at 30ºC after overnight rain.

Toprak Razgatlioglu led Andrea Locatelli and Jonathan Rea into turn one with Axel Bassani leading Alex Lowes and Xavi Vierge. Lowes and Bassani swapped back and forth on the first lap and the top six remained in the same positions to start lap two. Alvaro Bautista made his way up to eighth place. At turn ten, Locatelli took the lead and lost it in turn ten when Axel Bassani punted Razgatlioglu to fifth place. Locatelli going wide let Axel Bassani lead Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes out of turn ten. Axel Bassani set the fastest lap of 1'33.227 but towards the end of lap three, he was joined at the front by Michael Ruben Rinaldi who carved his way past both Kawasakis to start lap four in second place behind Bassani.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi took the lead from Bassani and set a 1'33.125 fastest lap ahead of Axel Bassani who was told to drop a position after his turn ten "irresponsible riding" incident. Alex Lowes held third position ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea as Rinaldi set a fastest lap of 1'33.016.

Bassani looked back and saw Alex Lowes on his tail. He let Lowes overtake and, while he was on the outside line, Toprak Razgatlioglu followed Lowed and stood Bassani up to take third from him. Lowes went wide into turn one and Razgatlioglu took second place from him. As Lowes went wide, Bassani missed his line and Rea pounced on him. Xavi Vierge forced his way past as Rea's pass went a little wide, but behind this action, Michael van der Mark and Philipp Oettl crashed and brought out the red flag. Scott Redding had his own incident further back, sliding into Andrea Locatelli to crash out. He was able to pick up his BMW to make the restart. Tom Sykes missed out on the craziness by putting in two laps before it all happened. 

The restart would be fourteen laps after a quick start procedure. Their grid would be Rinaldi, Razgatlioglu and Vierge on the front row and Bautista, Rea and Bassani on the second. Locatelli, Petrucci and Lecuona made up the third row. Sixteen riders started the restarted race with an assortment of tyres remaining in their allocation after the second red flag of the day. 

Michael Ruben Rinaldi lost out to Toprak Razgatlioglu off the line but took the lead into turn one. Alvaro Bautista took third place from Xavi Vierge with Jonathan Rea and Axel Bassani behind them. After lap two, the leading trio of Rinaldi, Razgatlioglu and Bautista were covered by two tenths of a second as Bautista set the fastest lap, a 1'32.594. Bautista put his feelers out to find a way past Razgatlioglu, but there were no passes to be made into corners. Lap three and Rinaldi set a fastest lap of 1'32.398 a second clear of Razgatlioglu and Bautista. Vierge, Rea and Bassani were bunched up behind. At the end of lap four, Bautista took Razgatlioglu's line and started lap five a second and a half behind his teammate Rinaldi. Axel Bassani took fifth off Rea and defended it hard. Bautista was lapping a tenth of a second quicker than Rinaldi with a gap of over a second. Razgatlioglu in third place was vocoder a second off the leaders at the end of lap seven with Vierge on his tail. 

Alvaro Bautista set a 1'32.247 on lap seven but remained a second and a half behind the leader Rinaldi. Razgatlioglu in third place had Xavi Vierge a quarter of a second behind him with Jonathan Rea over a second further back, fighting with Bassani and Locatelli. Rea crashed out into turn seven, running wide and sliding out of the race. Andrea Locatelli made the most of it to take fifth place from Axel Bassani with Danilo Peterucci and Iker Lecuona behind them. 

While all the drama unfolded in the fight for fifth place, Alvaro Bautista snuck up on Michael Ruben Rinaldi and sat under a tenth of a second behind him to start lap twelve. Toprak Razgatlioglu in third place was over two seconds off the fight for the win with Xavi Vierge following close behind. Bautista looked comfortable in second place, waiting for a chance and that chance came into turn ten of lap thirteen of fourteen. Razgatlioglu was less than a second off Rinaldi and six tenths of a second a lap quicker. Rinaldi went wide all on his own as his tyres ran out and watched Razgatlioglu and Vierge charge past him as he tried to rejoin the race.

Alvaro Bautista won the race over a second clear of Toprak Razgatlioglu with Xavi Vierge taking his first podium as Michael Ruben Rinaldi took fourth place. Andrea Locatelli and Danilo Petrucci rounded out the top six. Bautista's win increased his lead in the championship to thirty seven points over Toprak Razgatlioglu who climbed past Andrea Locatelli to take second place. 

Results:

World Supersport was eighteen laps starting under 30ºC dry weather. 

Nicolo Bulega led into turn one, ahead of Federico Caricasulo and Can Oncu. Taffaele De Rosa, Stefano Manzi and Niki Tuuli rounded out the top six. Valentine Debise crashed out on lap one. Can Oncu passed Federico Caricasulo to start the second lap in second place. The leading trio already had a gap to the fight for fourth. Glenn van Strallen crashed out from twelfth place. Can Oncu set the fastest lap, a 1'35.880, taking the lead into turn one. Five riders, headed by Stefano Manzi, contested fourth place.

A lap later, after Oncu set a lap record of 1'35.689, Can Oncu extended his lead by another quarter of a second. Lap four, Oncu extended his lead further, close to his precious lap's pace, quarter off a second quicker than Bulega and Caricasulo. Stefano Manzi in fourth place was on a similar pace to Oncu, closing the gap from fourth. A lap later, Manzi set a new lap record of 1'35.416 as he caught third placed Bulega and passed him to start challenging Caricasulo for second place.

Two seconds behind the fight at the front, Raffaele De Rosa fended off Niki Tuuli and Marcel Schroetter until Tuuli stuck a pass under De Rosa into turn ten. Behind Oncu, half a second covered Caricasulo, Manzi and Bulega. 

At half race distance, Can Oncu led Federico Caricasulo, Stefano Manzi and Nicolo Bulega by almost a second. Niki Tuuli was a further three seconds further back ahead of Marcel Schroetter, Jorge Navarro and Raffaele De Rosa. As Stefano Manzi took second place from Caricasulo, Schroetter passed Tuuli for fifth place. Caricasulo couldn't take advantage of his speed down the straight to take second place back from Manzi. Manzi, however, couldn't break free from Caricasulo on lap eleven to close up on Can Oncu.

Caricasulo made no attempts to pass Manzi and let him set about catching Oncu as the pair in second and third had a better pace than the leader. Nicolo Bulega could not keep up with the three bikes ahead of him, and he dropped out of podium contention. Manzi got his claws into Oncu at the start of lap thirteen with Caricasulo in his wake. Manzi closed up into turn ten and crept past to take the lead. Caricasulo tried to follow, but Oncu held him off. Caricasulo passed Oncu into turn one, powering past down the straight as Manzi escaped at the front on lap fourteen of eighteen.

Nicolo Bulega benefitted from the fight for the lead and closed up to Oncu and Caricasulo. Caricasulo wouldn't let Manzi get away and closed a quarter of a second on the leader as Bulega started trying passes on Oncu, powering past into turn ten and hold the apex and take third place from yesterday's race winner. 

At the start of the last lap, Stefano Manzi led Federico Caricasulo by a third of a second with Nicolo Bulega over a second behind, more than half a second from Can Oncu. Marcel Schroetter was almost four seconds behind with Niki Tuuli over a second behind him. Caricasulo took the lead early on in the lap and as Manzi tried to strike back, he kept his pace to take the win. Nicolo Bulega held on to third place behind Stefano Manzi. Can Oncu took fourth place a second and a half further back, well clear of Marcel Schroetter and Niki Tuuli. 

Caricasulo's win was his first in four years, ending a drought that dated back to 2019. Nicolo Bulega remains at the head of the championship, his lead reduced by just four points to eighteen points from Stefano Manzi and twenty three from Can Oncu. 

Results:

The World Superbike Superpole race would be ten windy laps of the Mandalika circuit with clouds holding back the 30ºC sun and threatening rain. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu led Alvaro Bautista and Andrea Locatelli into turn one. There was a four-bike incident at the start that put Loris Baz and Alex Lowes out of the race and put Danilo Petrucci and Scott Redding at the back of the race. A lap later, Jonathan Rea crashed into turn two of lap two, the site of the incident the lap before, sliding on fluid and bringing the red flags out as his bike skidded past the crashed bikes. Rea made it back to the pitlane to qualify for the restart. In the lap one crash, Alex Lowes blamed Danilo Petrucci for the crash, gesticulating at the Ducati rider as Loris Baz looked on. Loris Baz told the marshalls about oil on the track. 

As five laps weren't completed, the race will be an eight lap race starting from original grid positions. Alex Lowes and Loris Baz, in spite of the fact they couldn't get their bikes back to their garages, got to take part as the race was a restarted race and not a continuation of the red-flagged session. No action would be taken over the turn two incident.

The restarted race was a quick start procedure under a cloudy sky. Jonathan Rea held up his hand at the start of the warmup lap, but he got his bike started and nothing happened.

Toprak Razgatlioglu got past Alvaro Bautista to lead into turn two ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Jonathan Rea. Andrea Locatelli and Axel Bassani sat in fifth and sixth. Jonathan Rea took third place from Rinaldi twice on the first lap. Locatelli pushed Rinaldi aside into turn two as he struggled with his tyre choice. Lowes took seventh place from Loris Baz but he hit his dangling leg and Baz pulled off track and retired. Jonathan Rea set the fastest lap on lap two, a 1'32.225, as the leading trio were covered by half a second. 

Loris Baz pulled into the pits and was carried off his bike with an obviously injured right leg. 

Lap four, and Razgatlioglu, Bautista and Rea were again covered by less than half a second. At turn twelve, Rea passed Bautista and then had a massive wobble on the dirty track while Bautista behind him crashed out on the dirty track as he locked his front to avoid hitting Rea's twitching bike. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu led Andrea Locatelli by almost two seconds with Alex Lowes and Jonathan Rea behind Locatelli. Alex Lowes probed for a way past Locatelli, following him within two tenths of a second. 

Tom Sykes pitted in. Again.

On the last lap, Toprak Razgatlioglu led by over a second as Lowes looked for a way past Locatelli with Rea fighting of Axel Bassani over a second behind. Toprak Razgatlioglu won by over a second from his teammate Andrea Locatelli with Alex Lowes behind him. Missing out on the podium, Jonathan Rea fended off Axel Bassani with Xavi Vierge rounding out the second row. Alvaro Bautista's DNF puts him on the fourth row of the final race of the weekend. 

Alvaro Bautista remains in charge of the championship, twenty eight points ahead of Andrea Locatelli and thirty two points from Toprak Razgatlioglu. Loris Baz was taken to the medical centre for a checkup. 

Results: 

World Superbike race one was dirty and hot, and the factory Ducatis and Hondas lined up with SCX soft tyres. Remy Gardner and Eric Granado both suffered from acute gastroenteritis and missed the race.

Toprak Razgatlioglu led Alvaro Bautista and Axel Bassani into turn one, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi clipping Bassani's rear wheel, ending his race without any impact to Bassani. Danilo Petrucci slipped into fourth place, putting three Ducatis in the top four. On lap two, Andrea Locatelli set a 1'33.727 fastest lap, beaten a lap later by Jonathan Rea with a 1'33.448. Razgatlioglu held onto the lead as Rea closed up on Petrucci recovering from being passed by Andrea Locatelli. Rea made a pass into turn ten to push Petrucci down to sixth place on lap five. 

Bautista pushed past Razgatlioglu in the last corners before the straight and took the lead at the start of lap five. Axel Bassani followed through a few turns later to make the race a pair of Ducati's, a pair if Yamahas and a pair of Kawasakis as Alex Lowes took sixth place from Peterucci.

At turn ten of lap six, Razgatlioglu took second place as Bautista set a fastest lap in front of him, a 1'33.178. A lap later, Bautista set a 1'32.975, almost a second clear of Razgatlioglu. The leading eight riders were all within striking distance of the riders ahead and behind with a gap from eighth placed Xavi Vierge to Michael van Der Mark in ninth over two seconds. 

On lap ten, Alex Lowes passed Jonathan Rea who immediately looked behind to see if there was anyone else coming. Bautista set another fastest lap, a 1'32.824. Razgatlioglu kept up the pace but Bassani behind him started dropping off the leading pair. Locatelli was on similar pace to the leaders and wasted no time in passing Bassani to take third place almost two seconds from his teammate in second place. 

Alex Lowes in fifth place was also on a better pace than Bassani and passed him at the end of lap twelve. Bassani swapped back before the start of lap thirteen. Scott Redding pulled into the pits, punched his BMW and headed into his garage. Tom Sykes also pitted in, albeit a lot quieter.

Danilo Petrucci hounded Jonathan Rea until he passed into turn tenth take sixth place from Rea. Xavi Vierge was dragged up with Petrucci and started looking for a way past Rea, getting past on lap fifteen. 

With five laps left, Alvaro Bautista led Toprak Razgatlioglu by three seconds with Andrea Locatelli almost two seconds further back. Axel Bassani and Danilo Petrucci were separated by under two seconds with Alex Lowes and Xavi Vierge less than a second behind. Michael van der Mark caught and passed Rea into turn ten until Rea took it back in turn eleven, apologising for clipping van der Mark's bike. Xavi Vierge passed Alex Lowes as Michael van der Mark passed Jonathan Rea. Dominique Aegerter, the rider that passed Rea on the last lap at Phillip Island, caught Rea and was two tenths of a second behind him at the start of lap nineteen, lapping over half a second a lap faster.

Michael van der Mark started giving Xavi Vierge and Alex Lowes a bit of bother as he caught the pair and started poking the riders in front, looking for a way past. Lap nineteen and he pushed past Lowes into turn nine and started hounding Xavi Vierge. Rea passed Lowes only for Aegerter to pass both of them on the last lap. Van der Mark had over two seconds to Danilo Petrucci on the last lap and had to settle for sixth place. 

Alvaro Bautista beat Toprak Razgatlioglu by almost five seconds with Andrea Locatelli under two seconds behind for the last step of the podium. Axel Bassani and Danilo Petrucci had a safe second from the late-charging Michael van der Mark. Vierge held off Aegerter while Rea duelled with Lowes to take ninth.

Reigning champion Alvaro Bautista is so far unbeaten in four races and leads the championship by thirty seven points over Andrea Locatelli and forty four points from Toprak Razgatlioglu. 

Results:

Indonesia did what Indonesia does and the wind brought the rain fifteen minutes before the World Supersport race. Riders had to judge what the weather would do over the eighteen laps and pick their tyres accordingly. Riders chose to start with slick tyres.

Nicolo Bulega led into the first turn but was hustled aside by Federico Caricasulo and Can Oncu. Oncu then passed Caricasulo to take and hold the lead almost a second ahead of Caricasulo, Niki Tuuli and Nicholas Spinelli's battle for second. Tuuli took a decent line through turns eight and nine to take second place into turn ten. 

Can Oncu set the fastest lap on lap two, a 1'36.851, and led by a second as Tuuli held off Spinelli and Caricasulo behind. The battle for fifth was a second further back led by Raffaele De Rosa. Oncu set a 1'36.028 on lap three but a lap later Federico Caricasulo set a 1'35.906 as he closed up on second-placed Tuuli. 

Stefano Manzi climbed through the field but then ran off track and fell back to eighth place. Lap five and Can Oncu set a 1'35.728 as he extended his lead over Tuuli and Caricasulo to over a second. A lap later, the lead was stretched by another two tenths of a second. Caricasulo carried on probing for a pass on Tuuli and he finally made one stick on lap eight, sliding the rear into turn one to take second place almost two seconds behind Oncu. 

Having dealt with Tuuli, Caricasulo took less than a tenth of a second from Oncu's lead. Nicholas Spinelli crashed out of fourth place at turn six, sliding the front and skipping his Yamaha across the run-off. 

At half race distance, Can Oncu held his lead over a second and a half over Federico Caricasulo, with the two riders lapping at a similar pace. Niki Tuuli held third place and was closing on Caricasulo as the blue flags came out to remind slower riders to get out of the way, followed by a black flag for the previously-crashed Andrea Mantovani. 

On lap eleven of eighteen, Tuuli slipped under Caricasulo at turn fourteen, and faced a two and a half second gap to Can Oncu in the lead. Caricasulo took second place back shortly after as the fight for second place gave Onco breathing space, letting him just hot-lap the track, ticking off laps, three seconds in the lead by lap fourteen. 

Raffaele De Rosa held fourth spot from Glenn van Straalen, Nicolo Bulega and Marcel Schroetter, riders trying to make their mark before running out of laps. A small mistake from Bulega was leapt upon by Schroetter who then made sure Bulega couldn't take it back. Eight seconds behind, Valentin Debise held a lonely eighth place, eight seconds ahead of Stefano Manzi. 

Schroetter got along side van Straalen and the pair bashed their bikes together as Schroetter forced his MV Agusta under van Straalen's Yamaha. As the last lap started, Can Oncu had a lead of four seconds over Federico Caricasulo and Niki Tuuli. Glenn van Straalen and Nicolo Bulega duelled back and forth, but Bulega bashed van Straalen into turn fifteen and the pair went off the track. Van Straalen recovered to take eleventh place but behind their incident, De Rosa caught a puncture and pulled out of the race. 

Can Oncu finally took a World Supersport victory, beating Federico Caricasulo and Niki Tuuli by over three seconds. Marcel Schroetter was unchallenged for fourth place and Nicolo Bulega recovered from his punting of Glenn van Straalen to cross the line in fifth place. Valentin Debise picked up two places from the mess in front of him and finished in sixth place, fifteen seconds clear of Stefano Manzi. 

Can Oncu climbed to just twenty points off championship leader Nicolo Bulega after three races, two points ahead of Stefano Manzi. 

Results:

World Superbike qualifying was a little confusing when it played out as a yellow flag made the final results uncertain for a while.

Michael van Der Mark opened the session with a 1'33.002 on his first lap but Jonathan Rea posted a quicker lap but was knocked off the top spot by Alvaro Bautista then Toprak Razgatlioglu whose 1'32.231 was the quickest opening lap. A lap later, as the other quick riders pitted in, Bautista set a 1'32.231 and gave up on a faster lap to pit in. Bautista, Razgatlioglu and Michael Ruben Rinaldi made top the provisional front row while Rea, Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes made top the second as riders went in for new tyres. 

With two laps worth of tyre installed, and four minutes remaining, the track filled back up. Razgatlioglu Stepped up with a 1'32.037 and was joined under a tenth behind by his teammate Andrea Locatelli. Rea snuck up to fourth place and aimed for one last lap after ditching the hangers on he'd accumulated, but he didn't have enough tyre to improve. Bautista also lost a good lap and the grid remained settled.

Toprak Razgatlioglu got his third pole position at Mandalika ahead of Andrea Locatelli and Alvaro Bautista. Jonathan Rea headed the second row, alongside Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Axel Bassani. The results were classified as provisional as a yellow flag caused a bit of chaos, but the front row was confirmed fairly quickly, but Rea lost a place but remained on the second row while Bassani was punted down a row as Loris Baz benefitted. 

Results:

World Supersport qualifying culminated in twenty minutes of Superpole qualifying on an improving surface.

After one lap, Can Oncu opened with a 1'36.075. Nicholas Spinelli was on pace to take the top spot and crashed out in the last sector. Can Oncu beat his previous time with a 1'35.961. As Oncu pitted in for the mid-session tea break, Niki Tuuli stuck it out for another lap and posted a 1'35.915 on his Triumph Street Triple 765RS. Nicolo Bulega, Stefano Manzi, Federico Caricasulo and Glenn van Straalen rounded out the provisional front two rows.

With less than eight minutes left, riders started returning to the track. Nicolo Bulega and Federico Caricasulo set lap records with Bulega coming out ahead by three thousandths of a second with a 1'35.520. Can Oncu climbed up to the front row, making up a lot of ground in the last sector. Stefano Manzi pitted in with just over two minutes left but he didn't leave enough time for a flying lap. The flag came out but nobody had a lap in them to challenge the front three rows, confirming two Ducatis on the front row ahead of Can Oncu's Kawasaki.

Nicolo Bulega headed the front row with Federico Caricasulo and Can Oncu alongside him. The second row was an all-Next Generation blend with Niki Tuuli, Marcel Schroetter and Rafael De Rosa bringing twins and triples to the race. 

Results:

Alvaro Bautista set the quickest time with Toprak Razgatlioglu and Axel Bassani by less than a tenth of a second. Remy Gardner was ruled out of Saturday's qualifying and race due to a bout of gastroenteritis. Jonathan Rea could do no better than thirteenth quickest in the hot and humid conditions.

Results:

Michael Ruben Rinaldi held off his teammate Alvaro Bautista as he went two seconds quicker than the morning's session. Toprak Razgatlioglu was within two tenths of a second with Jonathan Rea fourth quickest. 

Results:

With the track coming into its own, dust and rubber settled and lap times over three seconds quicker than the morning's session, Nicolo Bulega once again set the fastest pace but was joined by Can Oncu, Nikki Tuuli and Marcel Schroetter within a tenth of a second of his quicker time. 

Results: