Leandro “Tati” Mercado (MIE Honda) in Aragon – the fast Argentine had absolutely no chance with zero preparation and a non-competitive bike. But the real bad news came after the race.

After-pains from Aragon before the Estoril round

There are a number of negative aspects, such as Tuuli and Gradinger’s injuries, which helped shape the Aragon weekend. Much worse, however, is a message that reached us immediately after the WSBK kick-off the next day. With MIE Honda, there is a withdrawal from WorldSBK after only one race, which gives a lot to think about. Leandro Mercado is the first to be mentioned, and the second is the sport and the staff of the team. We have already lost one of the two fast men from South America in the Chilean Maximilian Scheib and now the Argentine’s team is also pulling the plug after just one race. The following is the wording of the allegedly temporary withdrawal.

Midori Moriwaki – Team Principal: “Starting with the Aragon lap, we embarked on a development path for our bike on which we will carry out a series of tests in the coming weeks. In this way we believe that we are at a much higher level than on Last weekend, at least for the rest of the season. The decision to miss a limited number of events wasn’t an easy one, but we think it’s the right way to go to a higher level this year The problems and challenges that caused the pandemic are finally beginning to be resolved. Now is the time to do everything possible to harness the potential of the fantastic teamwork of the MIE Racing Honda team, our bike and our rider Tati Mercado for much better results over the course of the season to achieve. “

Tati Mercado photographed by us in 2019 as a Kawasaki rider in Parc Fermé. Now, after just one lap, Midori Moriwaki’s team simply pulls the plug and there is no real plausible reason for it. It’s a shame that there is no form of punishment for this, not only the fans from Argentina think.

The injured – Gradinger, Tuuli and others

The Austrian and the Finn had to do without the second race. With the former, this was possibly of a redeeming character due to his miserable preparation for the season or that of his team. Nevertheless, we and his fans hope that Gradinger will be fit again for Estoril. Niki Tuuli, on the other hand, was on the way to victory when, with an overly optimistic braking point at Turn 12, he threw not only himself but also leader Jules Cluzel out of the race. With a concussion, it was clear early on that he would probably not be allowed to drive the next day. Missing the first two races as a co-favourite on the podium and even missing victories was fatal for the MV Agusta driver. It also caught some pilots in the junior class, but in contrast to the WSSP 600, they currently have time to recover because they will not be at the start in the 2nd round of the World Championship.

The drama in Turn 12 with seven laps to go – Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta, in the picture on the right) was too close to Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) and touched his rear with his front wheel, whereupon both of them flew off violently. Because the Frenchman has no eyes at the back, you definitely can’t blame him. For the second time after 2020 he was shot down by a competitor and afterwards, despite starting from the very back, this time still on the podium – Chapeau!

The aftermath of the opponents of Kawasaki

Alex Lowes certainly didn’t just astound us with his performance in Aragon, even though we had him on the list for the podium. But to finish three times in a row behind his team-mate and reigning world champion, that was simply sensational, in order to honour his performance accordingly. For Jonathan Rea, on the other hand, there are hardly any words, as the former WSBK rider Sandro Cortese had to admit without envy. Despite the fact that the Greens were slowed down by the FIM before the first race, the reigning world champion dominated the season opener for the first time since 2017. That this succeeded in Aragon of all places is a warning signal to all opponents.

Jonathan Rea ahead of Alex Lowes (both Kawasaki ZX-10RR) and the “best of the rest” – a picture that one had not expected for the season opener, at least not for Aragon (© Kawasaki Racing Team).

Ducati and Yamaha – the Greens’ two most serious challengers?
While Rinaldi remained below his expectations, the two trump cards Davies and Redding only partially drew at Ducati. Yamaha even made it onto the podium twice, while the Reds only got it once. At the moment everything looks like Ducati and Yamaha are the two most serious challengers to Kawasaki. More could be expected from Honda than the two serious contenders Bautista and Haslam were able to show, in order to explicitly ignore MIE Honda. But things went much better at BMW than many expected, especially on Sunday. It will be interesting to see whether the balance of power between the last two manufacturers will change again in the next round.

Chaz Davies (GoEleven Ducati) in turn 8, after a fifth and fourth place on Sunday afternoon, he was still fourth in the World Championship, he threw away his race on the first lap and travelled to Portugal in eighth place in the interim classification. Before 2021 he was the most successful driver in Aragon ever, not after that.

Completely different omens before World Cup round two
On the one hand, the route in Portugal has completely different characteristics than the Motorland Aragon. On the other hand, it is a course on which the near-series World Cup will only be guesting for the fourth time after 1988, 1993 and 2020. Even if Estoril is now followed by a route on which the Northern Irishman has a downright miserable statistic for his standards, this means nothing. There were special circumstances at the season finale and despite too many crashes by the KRT works-duo, Kawasaki won the WorldSBK manufacturers ‘championship with one point ahead of Ducati after the drivers’ championship. Nevertheless, this and Redding’s double mishap with a highsider in the Superpole last year and then a technical failure in the first race make it particularly exciting. Will Toprak and Chaz share their victories again this season? It remains exciting, and we are convinced that at least once someone else will be on top of the podium!

With 101 wins and two of them already this season, Jonathan Rea travels to Portugal, where he had barely got more than a third of the points compared to the season opener 2021 in the final with 20 of them last year (© Kawasaki Racing Team).

The combined schedule of Mugello MotoGP and WorldSBK Estoril

>Estoril preview: see separate report on this page (coming soon).

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).