Unlike 2020 and 2021 when the man on the right drove for Honda, these three riders are mostly involved in the battle for the podium. From left Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR), Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha YZF-R1) and Alvaro Bautista (Ducati Panigale V4R). who actually rides in his own category on his MotoGP Replica, thanks to FIM and Dorna. As a result, there is now almost no real competition for victory.

Tissot Sprint Race – Victory for Toprak

Jonathan Rea on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR was leading until just before the end of the penultimate lap, after passing championship leader Bautista again in the second turn, who had only led briefly in turn 1. While Toprak Razgatlioglu managed to pass the record world champion with a lot of risk and driving commitment in the Melbourne Hairpin on lap 9, the Ducati pilot was able to push past Rea in the last round thanks to his advantage in acceleration and top speed in front of the so-called Foggy S. When the first three were interviewed, he was correspondingly disappointed because, despite the greatest effort, he was still unable to win in the first half of the season. The Northern Irishman will be all the more excited for Imola in 2 weeks, where he may have his only chance of winning this year. On this course, known as a driver’s course, he was able to defeat the little Spaniard on his vastly superior Ducati 2019 for the first time after his 11 victories and with a double victory initiate the hoped-for turnaround in the title fight.

Jonathan Rea on his Kawasaki ZX-10RR as the leader in the race – already 29 laps and thus 6 more than Razgatlioglu he was already in the lead until after the Tissot sprint race at Donington. Nevertheless, due to the regulatory castration of his Kawasaki by the FIM 2023, it was never enough for a win. Not so Bautista, who can literally play with his opponents on most routes due to his power-to-weight ratio superiority.

Gerloff on best BMW – Sykes misses top ten with crash

While the two Italians Locatelli and Petrucci secured positions 4 and 5 ahead of Alex Lowes, Tom Sykes, replacing the injured Michael van der Mark, lost his second top ten result for BMW this weekend due to a crash. The man from Huddersfield had just been overtaken by fellow Bonovo Action BMW fellow Garrett Gerloff. Trying to keep up with the Texan, Sykes overdid it in the finish corner and fell. The Englishman continued his race thereafter, but couldn’t get more than P18 in the 10-lap Tissot Sprintrace in WorldSBK (MotoGP has significantly more with 12 laps and 15 at the Sachsenring). Scott Redding was the second-best BMW driver with 9th place behind Gerloff and Bassani and thus got the last point to be awarded in the short decision, as well as 9th place on the grid for the second race. With position 11 behind Philipp Oettl, along with Sykes and Rinaldi, who drove into the gravel trap early, Dominique Aegerter in particular was among the disappointed drivers, after he also lost his excellent starting position on row 2 for the second race on Sunday.

Uniformity also in the second race on Sunday

In the sprint race in the morning, one had the impression that Bautista was deliberately holding back and, as so often this season, not taking full risks. Possibly a tactic used by Ducati to avoid risking a further reduction in the permitted maximum speed for their Panigale V4R after 6 laps. This was last imposed by the FIM for the fourth round in Barcelona. However, they were only slowed down by a ridiculous 250 rpm, which allowed the championship leader to continue to easily win race after race. In the first race at Donington and in the sprint race, Alvaro was content with P2. He lost a paltry 3 points to Toprak as a closest pursuer who was already almost 90 points behind the Spaniard going into the second heat. Up until then, he had won every race in which he finished. That shouldn’t change in the runs over the full distance in Donington either.

When the officials put up posters like this in the English round, on which you only see Bautista and Toprak, it’s no longer surprising that the Spanish-dominated Dorna didn’t appreciate Jonathan Rea. Ironically, in Great Britain, neither the best of all time nor one of his English colleagues was to be seen as an affront to the current heroes of the island’s motorsport nation.

Real excitement only when fighting for rank 3

While Bautista effortlessly passed Toprak and Rea after the middle of the race and then easily extended his lead, the Kawasaki rider lost contact with the two riders in front of him early on. In the last laps, the 6-times world champion was no longer able to defend himself against the approaching Petrucci and Redding. The Ducati privateer, lying in P3, easily distanced his two pursuers and took the last podium place behind brand colleague Bautista and Razgatlioglu. Behind “Petrux”, Scott Redding got his best result of the season on the BMW with P4 in front of Rea, Lowes and Bassani, who was able to intercept his compatriot Locatelli shortly before the end. Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) had been in the top five for a long time but lost a bit towards the end. Position 9 in front of Philipp Öttl was still a good result for the Texan and after bad luck in race 1 at least a second top ten result. Bradley Ray (Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) was also happy with the outcome of the second race. The reigning BSB Champion finished twelfth in the Tissot sprint race and finished twelfth, earning three well-deserved points.

The losers from the last race at Donington

With a terrible highside on the first lap, Tom Sykes caused a moment of shock and a little later a red flag. A day to forget for the Englishman and Loris Baz and Michael Ruben Rinaldi were also affected and, like Sykes, were unable to start again. While Iker Lecuona only got 2 points for 14th place in race 2 after a lot of bad luck on Saturday, the two-time Supersport World Champion Dominique Aegerter couldn’t really be satisfied with P11 either. A meager nine points is the worst result for the Swiss so far in the sixth of 12 rounds of this world championship. After all, with currently 97 points, he is only just behind Michael Ruben Rinaldi (102) in sixth place and in front of the two Honda works drivers Lecuona and Vierge. Together they scored just 7 points, making it the second-worst weekend for their team after Assen. Unless world championship leader Bautista gets injured, the world championship is already almost decided for him. With a lead of 93 points, he and his Ducati factory team, which is dubiously sponsored by FIM and Dorna, don’t have much to fear for the second half of the season.

Hafizh Syahrin (MAL) followed by Brazilian Eric Granado (both PETRONAS MIE Racing Honda Team on Honda CBR1000 RR-R) and Isaac Viñales (TPR Team Pedercini Racing, Kawasaki ZX-10RR), cousin of MotoGP Star Maverick. Of this trio, only the Spaniard made it onto the podium on Saturday (© MIE Honda).

Boredom again in WorldSSP 600

For many neutral fans, it stinks to high heaven that, just like in the WSBK, an Aruba.it Ducati is leading by a huge margin in the Supersport World Championship. Actually, the regulations propagated as fair by FIM and Dorna should ensure balance. However, as with WorldSBK, we are miles away from that. Especially when it comes to acceleration, the Ducati Panigale V2 with its 955 cc is vastly superior to the competition with between 600 and 800 cc thanks to the enormous torque advantage. Like Alvaro Bautista in the Superbike World Championship, Nicolo Bulega on the factory Ducati is usually unbeatable as long as he doesn’t make any mistakes. But as in the WSBK, the Ducati private pilots in WorldSSP are currently clearly at an advantage due to the FIM. Stefano Manzi tried to make up for his disadvantage on the Ten Kate Yamaha with his driving skills and promptly crashed. Domi Aegerter’s successor in the Dutch team was able to continue and finally took 5th place. In the world championship, however, the Italian is now a whole 55 points behind his compatriot Bulega.

Our summary of the results with three Ducatis on the podium. So that’s what happened to the promises made by FIM and Dorna that all manufacturers should have the same opportunities – ugh!

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