WorldSBK Czech Results, Race 2 - Championship drama and last lap fights

WorldSBK heads to the Autodrom Most this weekend for the eighth round of the 2023 season. This page will be updated throughout the weekend with WorldSBK Czech results.

Overview

Race 2 - Bautista wins as Razgatlioglu crashes out

Superpole Race - Razgatlioglu back on top for third Superpole Race win in succession

Race 1 - Wet weather mixes the order as Rea executes the perfect strategy for first win of the season

Superpole - Razgatlioglu on pole as Bautista struggles

FP - Gerloff surprises with fastest time in combined practice

Race 2

Despite some rain for the preceding WorldSSP race, WorldSBK Race 2 took place in totally dry condiitions, and, thanks to his third place in the Superpole Race giving him a front row start, Alvaro Bautista was able to cruise to his 19th win of the season.

Alvaro Bautista made quite a poor launch from third on the grid, but he still made the holeshot. He led from Axel Bassani, Jonathan Rea, and Toprak Razgatlioglu, who all knew that striking early would be their best bet of beating the reigning champion.

However, instead of engaging Bautista, they fought with each other, which was to the particular detriment of Bassani, who went straight on at turn one on the second lap.

Razgatlioglu made his way past Rea at the beginning of lap four, and although Bautista had pulled away by 0.7 seconds, Razgatlioglu was able to close that gap down, and then take the lead on lap seven.

Razgatlioglu was not able to break Bautista but he was able to hold the lead until the beginning of lap 17, when he high-sided on the exit of turn two. He expressed his confusion in the gravel trap, but Bautista's eventual victory saw the title race return to its 2023 default: when, not if; as Bautista's points lead extended back to 74 points.

Jonathan Rea held second place quite comfortably after Razgatlioglu fell, but a late charge from Danilo Petrucci meant there was still a fight to be had. It was one won by Petrucci, who finally took second place on the run to the line following several failed previous attempts.

Rea held onto third place, narrowly from Bassani, who made a good recovery after his run-on at turn one earlier on to finish fourth.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi was more distant in fifth, ahead of Remy Gardner who completed the top six as the top Yamaha.

Andrea Locatelli was seventh, ahead of Scott Redding (8th, top BMW), Xavi Vierge (9th, top Honda) and Loris Baz (10th) who completed the top 10.

Full WorldSBK results from Race 2 in Most are below.

2023 WorldSBK Czech Results | Race 2

Superpole Race

Dry conditions returned for the WorldSBK Superpole Race in Most, which Toprak Razgatlioglu took advantage of to take his third sprint race win in a row.

Toprak Razgatlioglu started from pole positiononce again and, as in Race 1, he lost out on the run to turn one. Instead, it was Axel Bassani who made the holeshot ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi, although the #21 was soon shuffled back to fourth by Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea.

Alvaro Bautista had also made a strong start to the race, climbing from his 14th-place grid position to fifth by the end of lap one.

Rea and Razgatlioglu had caught Bassani by lap four, and the #54 passed the #65 at turn one with seven laps to go. Bassani was Razgatlioglu's next target, whom he passed before lap four was done.

Rea then made his way past Bassani at turn one, just a few corners after Razgatlioglu made his own move, and he set about making a challenge for the lead.

That challenge came on lap six, when Rea passed Razgatlioglu into the penultimate corner, but a mistake in turn one allowed the Yamaha rider back to the front. 

Razgatlioglu led onto the final lap by 0.6 seconds, a lead which he doubled on the final tour on the way to his fifth win of the season, his third in the last four races, and his third consecutive Superpole Race triumph.

Rea held on until the end, but lacked the grip on the last lap to challenge Razgatlioglu. His second place came ahead of Alvaro Bautista, who passed Axel Bassani with an impressive combination of urgency and clinicality in the penultimate corner to take the final podium position.

Bassani, then, was denied the podium at the very end, taking fourth place instead, ahead of a distant Michael Ruben Rinaldi in fifth.

Remy Gardner took his best WorldSBK result in sixth place, ahead of Alex Lowes (7th), and Danilo Petrucci, whose race began by going wide at turn one and almost cleaning out the leaders, but who also recovered to eighth. 

The top 10 was rounded out by Garrett Gerloff, who took the final point in ninth, and Iker Lecuona who just missed out in 10th.

Full WorldSBK results from the Superpole Race in Most are below.

2023 WorldSBK Czech Results | Superpole Race

Race 1

Rain before WorldSBK Race 1 in Most meant the race started with a wet track, but the track dried throughout the 22 laps and Jonathan Rea proved to have the best strategy and execution.

Note: Before Race 2 began, it was confirmed that Alvaro Bautista and Michael Ruben Rinaldi had been demoted after Superpole to 14th and eighth respectively for both Race 1 and the Superpole Race.

At the atart, Axel Bassani made the holeshot, while Toprak Razgatlioglu went backwards from pole position as one of the riders to choose intermediate tyres.

On the contrary, Alvaro Bautista went from 14th on the grid to be third at the end of lap one, which Bassani ended with a lead of over two seconds over Remy Gardner.

Bassani’s lead was over eight seconds by the beginning of lap three, and already the only real battle was between Jonathan Rea - who had made much more of his intermediate tyres than Razgatlioglu - and Xavi Vierge for fourth place.

The first pit stops came at the end of lap four, with both Vierge and Michael Ruben Rinaldi switching from their wet tyres, before Bautista and Remy Gardner stopped to make the same change.

Rea had brought the gap to Bassani down to two seconds by the end of lap six, at which point the Italian stopped.

After the initial flurry of pit stops, it eventually became Rea versus Razgatlioglu in what seemed to be the fight for the win (the possibility remained for those who stopped for slicks to come through at the end). Rea’s lead was over 10 seconds by the time Razgatlioglu got to second place, but Razgatlioglu’s pace was better. 

But it was not enough for Razgatlioglu, who finished second for what turned out to be an important 20 points, with the championship leader, Bautista, finishing down in 12th and picking up only four points as the strategy of wet-to-slick turned out to be slower than the one preferred by Rea and Razgatlioglu, of taking the intermediates from start-to-finish.

Rea’s win was his first of the season, his first since last November, and potentially his final with Kawasaki as rumours swirl around the WorldSBK paddock suggesting he could be off to Yamaha in 2024.

Danilo Petrucci matched the strategy of both Rea and Razgatlioglu, taking intermediates, and it paid off for him, too, finishing third for his second podium finish in WorldSBK.

Scott Redding finished fourth for his and BMW’s best placing of the season, ahead of the top-placed Honda of Iker Lecuona in his own season-best result of fifth.

Andrea Locatelli rounded out the top six, ahead of Axel Bassani, who was the top-placed wet-to-slick rider in seventh.

Dominique Aegerter took eighth place, ahead of Alex Lowes (9th) and Loris Baz (10th), who completed the top 10.

Full WorldSBK results from Race 1 in Most are below.

2023 WorldSBK Czech Results | Race 1

Superpole

WorldSBK Superpole in Most led to some intriguing results, with Alvaro Bautista only on row three, BMW not able to capitalise on teir practice pace, and Toprak Razgatlioglu taking pole position by almost half-a-second.

The pace of the BMW riders had been somewhat surprising in free practice, especially in Saturday morning’s FP3 session, in which BMW had a 1-2 with Garrett Gerloff leading Scott Redding. 

However, none of the M1000RR riders were able to convert that practice speed into a front row or pole position. In fact, no one was really able to come close to Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu, who took pole position.

The Turkish rider’s margin to second place was 0.431 seconds, and his closest challenger was Axel Bassani. In fact, the three closest riders to Razgatlioglu’s pole position time were all Ducati-mounted, but none of them bore the #1 plate of championship leader Alvaro Bautista. Instead, Danilo Petrucci completed the front row in third place, and Bautista’s factory Ducati teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi was fourth, alongside Remy Gardner (5th) and Jonathan Rea (6th, top Kawasaki) on row two.

You have to look as low as seventh to find Bautista, who seems to be suffering with the harder tyres (only SC0 and SC1 rear compounds, no SCX or SCQ, are available this weekend) Pirelli has brought to Most.

The aforementioned Gerloff (8th, top BMW), and Andrea Locatelli (9th) complete row three, while Scott Redding completed the qualifying top 10, and will be joined by Xavi Vierge (11th) and Dominique Aegerter (12th) on the third row.

Philipp Oettl failed to set a lap within the qualifying time, but was fifth in the combined practice standings, so should be allowed to start Race 1 later today, albeit from the back of the grid.

Full WorldSBK results from Superpole in Most are below.

2023 WorldSBK Czech Results | Superpole

Free Practice

Ducati Monster SP (2023) track review - Silverstone GP circuit on the Monster SP