Tom Sykes (BMW) ahead of Leon Haslam (HRC Honda), Kohta Nozane (Yamaha) and the later winner Scott Redding on the Ducati – the Englishman with the number 45 was initially only in P10. As the track dried out, he gradually worked his way forward.

Some comments from the pilots after the surprising Saturday

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team): „A very tough race, especially in these conditions when it started raining heavily ten minutes before the race. In the beginning, when it was all wet, I felt great. I got off to a terrible start, but at the end of the first lap I was able to lead and overtake a lot of riders. We didn’t race here in the wet this weekend, so you get a little nervous about the setup too. The big question was what is the right setup direction. I feel like we got this just a little wrong. We were on the back of a setup for completely wet, but there was no stagnant water on the tarmac. The track was just wet. After three or four laps the rain stopped and when the temperature rose I really had problems because the tire wasn’t sticking well. It was worst out of the corners. On the other hand, I felt pretty good on the brakes. When Toprak and Bassani came by, I could see that they had a lot more traction. It was definitely one of the hardest-fought fourth places of the season.“

Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team): „Sixth place was okay today, but this track is one of the more difficult for us. You have the bike on your side for a long time to get back into the late corners. The third free practice this morning was pretty good, as was Superpole, and when I saw in the race that it was going to get wet I thought I was going to be pretty strong and fight for the podium. I’m usually pretty quick in the rain, but I didn’t have the grip today. I slipped too much at the entrance to the corner, and at the exit I couldn’t get the bike to accelerate. It was a long race. I enjoyed it, but without being in the position to attack. On the other hand, today it was easy to crash and not get any points, so things can get worse and worse. I honestly thought I rode well, so I can’t complain. I just have to try to do better tomorrow.“

Jonathan Rea (1) not placed in the top seven after a difficult start at Turn 2, had already taken the lead by the end of the first lap, but then the problems came.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha): „Today I was very fast for the first time in wet conditions, my team gives me a great bike, and I was able to take the lead for the last few laps until the electrical problem came up. So I’m surprised and happy about this performance, because as everyone knows, I’m usually not that fast when it’s wet. Although I always do my best just to get a good position. But I saw that I could go to the top after overtaking Johnny. After that I thought this race is my race, we can win in the rain. I think every rider had a problem entering corners and sliding backwards too. My feeling was much better after a few laps. Bassani fought a bit, but even after we overtook Johnny, we stayed together. Then I feel good and ride better because I know which corners I’m sliding in, and I also tried different lines for better grip. I’m still surprised because I’m usually not fast in wet conditions, so this is a huge improvement for me. After the electrical defect I’m of course very angry, but this weekend is not over yet and there are still many races left this year, including two races tomorrow. I’m trying my best, I’ll try one more time to win.“

Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha): „It was a very difficult race for me because I am trying to start very well and also finished second in the first corner, but at the end of the race I lost too much on the rear tire. I don’t know what the reason is, but I still try to get the most out of it in wet conditions. When I tried to accelerate I continued to play with the accelerator, but I can’t go out of the corner, and so I lose a lot of seconds in the corners. But now we have to forget a little. We just have to understand what happened today, then we have to focus on the next race because tomorrow we have two more races. I feel positive, and we learned something on Saturday too, and then we’ll see tomorrow. If we have dry conditions, we are definitely ready to fight with the top group.“

Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) ahead of Leandro Mercado (MIE Honda) and Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) – in contrast to Jonas Folger (BMW), the fast Frenchman scored important points and, like the Argentine behind him, was one of the winners of the difficult first race on Saturday.

Michael van der Mark (BMW): „I felt perfect on Saturday morning in FP3. I had good pace after making some changes to the bike that I was comfortable with. In Superpole, I was quite happy with my laps. Ninth on the grid wasn’t ideal, but I knew we had a good bike for the race. The race was then wet. I got off to a good start and got into a good rhythm and started overtaking people. At one point in the race, I was very confident, but I felt the bike spin as soon as I got the bike out of the corner, especially when compared to the other riders. It was an enjoyable race for me, but it was also very frustrating as I felt that with a little more grip at the exit, I could have battled for the podium. Anyway, this is another race and we’ve learned a lot from it. We have to find the solution when it’s wet again in order to get more drive grip.“

Tom Sykes (BMW): „It was of course great to get pole position in Superpole, but then I dropped from pole position to 15th place at the start of the race. In the rainy conditions, I got a lot of paint on the track after half a meter, so the bike turned twice. It was unfortunate because the first few laps we had good speed and then everyone seemed pretty flat, so it was difficult to make the difference, so it was a disappointment, but it is what it is. The bike worked very well in many areas, only the grip was missing when accelerating at the rear. This is something we have to take care of tomorrow, and then we’ll get our next chance.“

Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda): “The track conditions were much better this morning than yesterday, and we were able to drive one lap faster in the last free practice, but then we really had problems in qualifying. The rear tire turned a lot and since I had hardly any grip I couldn’t do an excellent lap, so we started very far back in Race 1. The first part of the race was difficult because the rear tire was still spinning a lot. I felt better afterwards, especially with the engine brake and traction control, which gave me confidence and increased my pace, and from the middle of the race I was able to drive with a pace similar to that of the leading group. I made up a few positions, after that the gap was too big. We have gathered a lot of information anyway, so let’s see what kind of weather we have tomorrow and whether we can use today’s experience to achieve a better result.”

Leon Haslam (HRC Honda): „Qualifying was positive, and we weren’t that far away, similar to Magny-Cours. We have a more stable drying setting anyway, that’s for sure. But I was still looking forward to racing in the rain because I had the feeling that we might have the opportunity to finish on the podium. Unfortunately, I really had problems entering the corner from the first lap on. I tried to work around it and was able to struggle with a couple of riders, but I honestly feel like I could have been faster if we’d taken a slightly different engine brake setting. We’ll see how the weather will be tomorrow and whether we can fight for a better result.“

The first of 3 races in Catalonia in numbers

WorldSBK World Championship stand

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. JONATHAN REA 376 KAWASAKI
2. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 370 YAMAHA
3. SCOTT REDDING 323 DUCATI
4. ANDREA LOCATELLI 190 YAMAHA
5. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 188 DUCATI
6. ALEX LOWES 186 KAWASAKI
7. TOM SYKES 167 BMW
8. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 165 BMW
9. GARRETT GERLOFF 147 YAMAHA
10. ALVARO BAUTISTA 122 HONDA
11. CHAZ DAVIES 120 DUCATI
12. AXEL BASSANI 120 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 87 HONDA
14. LUCAS MAHIAS 44 KAWASAKI
15. TITO RABAT 38 DUCATI
16. KOHTA NOZANE 37 YAMAHA
17. ISAAC VINALES 22 KAWASAKI
18. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 18 YAMAHA
19. JONAS FOLGER 14 BMW
20. EUGENE LAVERTY 14 BMW
21. LEANDRO MERCADO 9 HONDA
22. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
23. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
24. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
25. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI

The schedule for the Catalan round in Barcelona

Once again the starting order was changed at short notice (WorldSSP before WorldSBK on Saturday) and we made this line-up for the foxes. It had been known for several months that the MotoGP would compete in Misano at the same time thanks to the terrible planning errors by FIM and Dorna. These last minute changes are continually being made to testify to the inability of these people to plan ahead.

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