WorldSBK Donington Results, Race 2 - A popular podium

Round six of the 2023 Superbike World Championship takes the series to the UK, and Donington Park, where Alvaro Bautista arrives with a championship lead of 86 points. This page will be updated with WorldSBK Donington results throughout the weekend.

Overview

Race 2 - Bautista wins as Petrucci claims first WorldSBK podium

Superpole Race - Razgatlioglu wins out in last lap fight with Bautista, Rea

Race 1 - Bautista dominant once again as Razgatlioglu, Rea complete the podium

Superpole - Rea under the lap record for pole position

FP2 - Razgatlioglu fastest but Rea ends day 1 on top

FP1 - Rain disruptions don't stop Rea, fastest on Friday morning

Race 2

After his dominance of the first full-length WorldSBK race on Saturday, Alvaro Bautista was the strong favourite to take victory yet again in Race 2, which he did in fine style.

The first start was red flagged due to an incident on lap one at the exit of Coppice between Tom Sykes, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, and Loris Baz. Sykes high-sided, and Baz moved to his left in order to avoid his fellow BMW rider, but in doing so collided with Rinaldi, who had nowhere to go.

Baz was able to walk away from the crash, while both Sykes and Rinaldi had to be taken away by ambulance. Replays showed that Rinaldi was conscious after the crash, but that he was in pain with his lower right leg; and that Sykes was able to move after the crash, but could not walk. Sykes was diagnosed with a thoracic injury, a right rib fracture, and an injury to his right ankle.

At the restart, Alvaro Bautista made the holeshot ahead of Jonathan Rea, who lost second place to Toprak Razgatlioglu when he ran wide at the Melbourne Hairpin on the opening lap.

Razgatlioglu picked up Bautista at the same corner one lap later, something which Rea was able to take advantage of to move into second place. The battling among the top three was preventing them from escaping, and Andrea Locatelli was still in the fight at the beginning of lap three.

Bautista passed Rea on lap 10 at the chicane, and immediately reset his sights to focus on the Yamaha of Razgatlioglu, who he passed on the front straight at the beginning of lap 13. Razgatlioglu fought back, but Bautista repeated the move on the front straight at the beginning of lap 14, and, from there, the race for the win was run, Bautista’s winning margin over Razgatlioglu 2.650 seconds.

The battle for the final podium position, though, was more intense, with Danilo Petrucci coming through to take his first WorldSBK podium in third place. 

Scott Redding (the top-placed BMW) also put on a strong charge in the second half of the race to overcome Rea for fourth, while the #65 Kawasaki rider finished fifth.

Alex Lowes completed the top six, ahead of Axel Bassani (7th), Andrea Locatelli (8th), Garrett Gerloff (9th), and Philipp Oettl (10th).

Full WorldSBK results from Race 2 in Donington are below.

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | Race 2

Superpole Race

The overcast skies of Saturday remained for Sunday’s WorldSBK Superpole Race at Donington. The shorter distance offered opportunities for Alvaro Bautista’s rivals, and it was Toprak Razgatlioglu who made the most of these to take his second race win of the season.

From second on the grid, Alvaro Bautista once again made the holeshot, as he did in Race 1 yesterday, but he was beaten out of the corner by Jonathan Rea, who understood that making the difference early on would be the key to fighting for the win by the end of the race.

The intensity from both Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu - who had passed Bautista for second place on lap one - was evident, but Bautista remained an ever-present threat in third place.

Bautista set the fastest lap of the race on lap six, as the top three were, by now, distancing themselves from those behind.

Ultimately, Bautista ran out of time to challenge for the win, but a penultimate-lap pass from Razgatlioglu on Rea brought the Spaniard close enough to clinch second place on the final lap.

It was probably the best race of the season, simply because Bautista was challenged over the full course of a race for the first time this season. That he did not come out on top is indicative of his strong position in the championship, and the desperation that has developed from the hunger to win possessed by both Razgatlioglu and Rea which has not been even nearly satisfied this year.

Behind the podium battle, Andrea Locatelli was ‘best of the rest’ in fourth place, ahead of Danilo Petrucci (5th) and Alex Lowes (6th) who completed the top six.

Garrett Gerloff was the best BMW rider in seventh place, ahead of Axel Bassani (8th), Scott Redding (9th), and Philipp Oettl (10th), who rounded out the top 10.

Full WorldSBK results from the Superpole Race at Donington Park are below.

2023 WorldSBK Results | Donington  | Superpole Race                 

Race 1

To the delight of many, patches of blue sky were present over Donington Park for WorldSBK Race 1 of the 2023 UK round. The conditions gave way to a competitive race, in which Alvaro Bautista emerged the victor.

From pole position, and considering the combination of the difficulty with which Alvaro Bautista tends to launch and the short run to turn one at Donington, it was perhaps no surprise to see Jonathan Rea beaten to turn one by the Spaniard, who led the opening lap.

A mistake from Bautista at the chicane on lap two allowed Rea back to the front, and it seemed to suck in Danilo Petrucci, who dropped back to fourth, behind Toprak Razgatlioglu, and then to fifth, behind Alex Lowes.

When Razgatlioglu came to join Rea in the top two positions, it seemed that the race would devolve into a fight between at least the two of them. In reality, it devolved into the same thing we have seen in every other race this season, with the exception of the Indonesian Superpole Race. 

By lap nine, Bautista was in the lead, by lap 13 Rea had been dropped. To the credit of Razgatlioglu, he was able to keep his deficit to Bautista under one second even when the Spaniard was setting lap record pace. But even Razgatlioglu, who won all three races in Donington last season, could not deal with Bautista. His deficit extended to over one second on lap 15, and, at that point, it was game over.

The final nine laps were comfortable for the reigning champion, Bautista coming home to take his first victory at Donington in WorldSBK, his first in any class since the 2006 125cc British Grand Prix.

As for the Kawasaki riders, Rea finished third, hanging onto the final podium position over Danilo Petrucci in fourth. But Rea was over three seconds behind Razgatlioglu, and over seven seconds off the winner.

Lowes, on the other hand, finished sixth, behind Andrea Locatelli in fifth place. Behind Lowes was Axel Bassani, who came from 14th to sixth before dropping to seventh in the closing stages. Scott Redding was the top BMW in eighth, despite spending most of the race more than one second behind his fill-in teammate, Tom Sykes, who finished ninth in the end. Remy Gardner rounded out the top 10.

Full WorldSBK results from Race 1 in Donington are below.

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | Race 1

Superpole

Continuing the climatic theme of the weekend, WorldSBK Superpole took place in dry, but uncertain conditions. Clouds continued to linger overhead, but, for the first time this weekend, 1:26s were possible. In fact, a new lap record was possible, and Jonathan Rea proved the rider to set it on his way to pole position.

At the beginning, less than one-tenth-of-a-second covered the top five riders, and Alex Lowes was fastest. By the end, though, Lowes was fifth, 0.381 seconds away from pole position, as Jonathan Rea and two Ducatis came to set the pace.

Rea’s pace was  enough to break the lap record - his own, set in last year’s Superpole session. A 1:26.041 was less than 0.1 seconds faster than Alvaro Bautista in second place, but the margin was enough.

Joining Rea and Bautista on the front row in both Race 1 and the Superpole Race will be Danilo Petrucci, an arguably unexpected addition to the top three considering the Italian has not visited Donington Park since 2009.

At the front of the second row will be Toprak Razgatlioglu, the fastest Yamaha, ahead of the aforementioned Lowes and Dominique Aegerter, whose last lap bumped Andrea Locatelli to seventh.

Tom Sykes, the fastest BMW, and Michael Ruben Rinaldi complete the third row, while Garrett Gerloff rounds out the qualifying top 10. Philipp Oettl and Scott Redding round out the fourth row.

Rinaldi had crashed before the end of the session at the final corner. Had Axel Bassani been able to take advantage, it might have been a more costly mistake for the #21. Instead, Bassani repeated Rinaldi’s mistake, and qualified 14th as a result.

Full WorldSBK results from Superpole in Donington are below.

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | Superpole

FP2

WorldSBK FP2 at Donington Park was heavily impacted by rain, which left the track not suitable for wets, intermediates, or slicks, and meant there was very little running on Friday afternoon. Of what running there was, Toprak Razgatlioglu was able to go fastest, ahead of Axel Bassani.

The second practice session at Donington Park for WorldSBK was almost immediately disrupted by rain. The riders were barely able to complete an out-lap before the circuit was in the awkward phase between wets and slicks where it didn’t really suit either tyre. The worst of the early conditions seemed to be isolated to the final corner, where Toprak Razgatlioglu had one moment in particular, running wide on full opposite-lock.

He was, though, able to run a 1:27.639 - and Axel Bassani behind him a 1:27.781 - which, for both riders, was faster than they had been in FP1. This convinced many other riders to head back out. However, as they did so, the conditions worsened again, and so they all retired back to pitlane with almost absolute immediacy.

In the end, only seven riders set times in FP2, and all of  them were in wet condition with the exceptions of Razgatlioglu and Bassani. Andrea Locatelli was third fastest, 13 seconds off the pace, with Hafizh Syahrin, Lorenzo Baldassarri, Eric Granado, and Dominique Aegerter behind him.

That meant that Jonathan Rea ended Friday as the fastest rider, ahead of Razgatlioglu (2nd), Philipp Oettl (3rd), Bassani (4th), Alex Lowes (5th), Bradley Ray (6th), Tom Sykes (7th), Alvaro Bautista (8th), Michael Ruben Rinaldi (9th), and Andrea Locatelli, who completed the top 10.

Full WorldSBK Donington results from FP2, as well as the combined Friday practice times, are below.

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | FP2

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | Combined FP

FP1

The WorldSBK weekend in Donington started out in the perfect way for both the fans and Jonathan Rea, with the six-times champion able to take advantage of (mostly) dry conditions on Friday morning to set the fastest time.

Speaking to WorldSBK.com before the start of the weekend, Rea spoke of his optimism coming to Donington after a positive test in Aragon.

"I’m full of optimism," Rea said, "we’ve had good results at Donington Park in the past." The pre-Donington test in Aragon was of benefit, as Kawasaki were able to evaluate some new setup and setting options for the ZX-10RR, especially in view of hotter conditions. In Aragon, "we were able to understand some new items and keep working on our pace in the hotter conditions," Rea said.

Rea's result in FP1 matched his pre-weekend optimism, ending the session fastest, 0.052 seconds ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Philipp Oettl also had a strong showing on Friday morning, ending third fastest and the fastest Ducati, ahead of the second factory Kawasaki of Alex Lowes; recently re-signed for 2024 for by ''team green'.

Bradley Ray also put in his best session of 2023 so far, as the WorldSBK rookie put the Motoxracing Yamaha R1 in the top five, ahead of Tom Sykes on the lead BMW.

Then came Alvaro Bautista, in seventh place, 0.516 seconds slower than Rea. The margin for Bautista is not huge, but, considering the Spaniard's dominance so far in 2023, it is both a noteworthy margin and position.

Right behind Bautista, in eighth, was his factory Ducati teammate, Michael Ruben Rinaldi, which, by itself, seems positive for the Italian. But, his deficit to his teammate was 0.409 seconds, meaning Rinaldi missed almost one second compared to Rea.

It was a similarly disappointing session for Andrea Locatelli in ninth place, 0.944 seconds slower than Rea, and 0.892 seconds slower than his teammate, the aforementioned Razgatlioglu.

Iker Lecuona, fresh from his second fill-in appearance for Repsol Honda in MotoGP at last weekend's Dutch TT, completed the top 10 on his return to WorldSBK.

Full WorldSBK Donington results from FP1 at the UK round are below.

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | FP1