The Flying Turk used swimming movements to secure a convincing victory, just like a certain Marc Marquez did years ago, whose gesture Toprak Razgatlioglu (BMW M-1000RR) wanted to commemorate. This time he crossed the finish line without a stoppie, like the previous lap in Misano, because he was warned by the FIM commissioners afterwards.

Open words of the World Cup leader after his eighth victory

After his outstanding victory in the sprint race, Toprak Razgatlioglu gave a memorable interview to two-time WSBK world champion James Toseland (2004 on Ducati and 2007 for Honda) on Sunday morning. When the Englishman asked the Turk about the large gap to the second-placed rider, he pointed to the difficult years from 2019 onwards. When Alvaro Bautista literally flew past his competitors on the Ducati MotoGP Replica on the straights with a top speed usually 15 to 20 km/h higher, he and Jonathan Rea had absolutely no chance and lost their races with a huge gap. Now Ducati is finally in the situation of having to experience for themselves what such a devastating defeat feels like. The BMW driver thus openly pointed out how inferior he and all the other opponents (with special mention of Johnny Rea) of the Reds have felt over the last five years, despite the highest level of commitment and risk. Bautista’s engine advantages were, from their perspective, far too often so obvious that they rarely had to take a really high risk. But now Toprak’s BMW M-1000R only has 600 rpm less maximum speed available than the Ducati Panigale V4R. With the Yamaha R1 it was 900, which means significantly less power and a much narrower speed range than with the Ducati in particular.

Andrea Iannone (Ducati) ahead of Michael van der Mark (BMW), Remy Gardner (Yamaha) and behind them Xavi Vierge (Honda) and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Ducati). For the man in yellow, who was the sensation of the first two rounds, Donington became a nightmare when he had to leave the island with only 5 points. It is hard to imagine that he will find a place in a factory team or even in MotoGP for 2025 (© HRC Honda).

The turning point in the 37th WorldSBK season

After round 5 in Donington, everything looks as if his much lower handicap, together with the minimum weight that was finally introduced for the 2024 season under pressure from Ducati competitors, is now enough to make the difference as the fastest rider. While Bautista owed the majority of his victories, according to the majority of votes in the paddock, mainly to the interpretation of the regulations by questionable FIM officials, Razgatlioglu only needs a motorcycle that even all the experts doubted until last year. After he took overall victory at the Circuito de Cataluña this year with two wins and a third place despite the long start-finish straight, his and all neutral WSBK fans began to hope for an open championship. A slight setback in the sprint race in Assen meant that “El Turco” missed out on a few points. All of this could not prevent Toprak from inflicting the first devastating defeat of the season on Ducati factory riders Bautista and Bulega with his one-two-three victory in Misano of all places. After this humiliation on Ducati’s home track, the same thing happened again in England, meaning that the turnaround in the balance of power in the WSBK can be described as complete. BMW has been the clear favorite for the title since the fifth round in England at the latest, thanks to Toprak. Without any technical failures or crashes, this should result in the first title for the Bavarian factory.

Toprak with the number 54 ahead of the rest of the field, definitely a sight that we can get used to in the near future. For most WorldSBK fans, the red color of Aruba.it Ducati had dominated the WorldSBK for far too long, without the rider being primarily responsible for this.

Crashes and FIM wrong decision overshadow the WSSP final race

Unfortunately, after a collision between Marcel Schrötter (MV Agusta) and the Australian Tom Edwards (Ducati), there was a mass crash, which led to a red flag and the race being stopped after two laps. Toms, Fuligni, Keankum and McPhee were involved in turn 10. Before that, Glen van Straalen had also crashed in the eleventh corner, but this did not prevent the Dutchman from achieving a top ten result after the restart. Marcel Schrötter also made it to the pits in time and his mechanics were able to repair his MV, which meant that the German was able to collect some important points with 11th place. However, the former Moto2 GP winner may no longer have a serious say in the title fight. Adrian Huertas is completely different, and despite two zeros in the first two laps, he is already well ahead in the interim rankings of the World Championship. Many in the paddock, however, believe that the Spaniard has the FIM to thank for this. On the one hand, it looks more and more like Ducati is being given an advantage by these people through their interpretation of the WSSP regulations, which is underlined by a look at the latest results. On the other hand, the actual winner Montella was demoted to P2 by the FIM stewards in race two at Donington shortly after crossing the finish line. The slow motion footage, however, raises considerable doubts about his alleged track limit violation according to the FIM stewards. This also applies to the spontaneous reaction of live commentators after seeing the scene in question.

Meanwhile, more and more observers at the WorldSSP are mocking the idea of ​​a Ducati brand cup with a few guest starters. If Stefano Manzi’s most successful bike of the last few years, the Ten Kate Yamaha R6, doesn’t even make it onto the podium, the most important arguments against this statement are missing. Ultimately, according to those responsible, it was precisely this motorcycle that was to be used as a reference for the technical implementation of a very complicated set of rules, something that the FIM clearly failed to do.

Who can still challenge Toprak for the title?

In this context, it is definitely not possible to name the best WorldSBK rider of all time. Unfortunately, Johnny Rea is still fighting with blunt weapons on the Yamaha, on which Razgatlioglu achieved numerous victories. With the exception of the Tissot Sprint Race in Donington, even podium finishes have remained a dream for him so far and he is only in a hopeless eleventh place in the World Championship. Because defending champion Alvaro Bautista is clearly weaker and is far too often in the shadow of his Ducati factory team colleague and rookie Niccolo Bulega, very few people believe that the Spanish racing dwarf can win another title. The market value of the two-time world champion is drastically reduced with every round and now even the last observers are certain that his countless successes in recent years were primarily due to the superior material from Ducati. Otherwise he would have cut a better figure in his two years on the factory Honda. Because Bulega still lacks a lot of experience with the Ducati Panigale V4R, the Italian is unlikely to be able to prevent Toprak from winning his second title after 2021. That leaves Alex Lowes, who was considered a crash pilot for many years. But probably only when he can take his team up a notch with the Bimota-Kawasaki next year will the Englishman have enough competitive material for the title fight. With a maximum speed of 1000 rpm less than the Ducati Panigale V4R, the man from Lincoln is still fighting with the same handicap as Jonathan Rea on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR in recent years.

Niccolo Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) ahead of Scottie Redding (Bonovo Action BMW M-1000RR), the northern Italian rookie from Montecchio Emilia is now considered the only halfway serious challenger to Toprak in the title fight, because his Ducati factory team colleague Alvaro Bautista has far too often fallen far short of expectations. As the reigning Supersport World Champion, however, the newcomer has the handicap of having to get to know the tracks all over again with the Panigale V4R due to the significantly higher engine power.

A statement by Toprak gives the competition something to think about

Similar to Jonathan Rea in 2019, when he had built up a lead of almost 9 seconds in the pouring rain at Donington within three laps, his former brand colleague dominated 5 years later, but now driving for BMW. On Saturday, we could hardly believe our eyes at how huge the gap was between the pursuers of the Northern Irishman, led by rain specialist Tom Sykes, who had achieved his first victory in similar conditions at the Nürburgring in 2011. At the Paddock Show, Rea had to listen to him tell him after the first run at Donington Park how he reduced the risk from the third lap onwards in order to only drive safely to the finish. It sounded astonishingly similar in 2024 after Razgatlioglu’s first and completely superior victory at the same city. He stated that he himself was surprised by his ever-growing lead. After that, he actually only made sure not to make any unnecessary mistakes and hoped that no technical defect would slow him down. Getting to the finish line safely remained his motto, just like Jonathan Rea back then and Alvaro Bautista in the last two years. However, unlike Johnny and Toprak, the latter always vehemently denied this when asked, despite his vast superiority in top speed and acceleration.

Alex Lowes (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) ahead of Scott Redding (BMW M-1000RR) in the battle for the podium, which the man in green ultimately won clearly. The strong performance of the fast Brits in the WorldSBK was extremely pleasing for the many English fans in Donington Park, with Jonathan Rea (Yamaha R1) finally achieving his first (albeit virtual, as it was a sprint) podium.
With 9 victories, seven of them in a row, BMW newcomer Razgatlioglu is riding a wave and he currently seems virtually untouchable for his competitors, even though 7 of 12 rounds are still to go. In comparison and looking at the last two years, Bautista’s two modest victories, one of which was only achieved in the sprint race, seem almost unbelievable.

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