WorldSBK UK: Donington Dominance Completed by Razgatlioglu in Race 2

Round five of the 2024 Superbike World Championship takes the series to the UK, and Donington Park, where Toprak Razgatlioglu arrives to the WorldSBK UK Round with the championship lead. The championship leader took pole position on Saturday, and converted that to victories in Race 1, the Superpole Race, and Race 2 to deliver his second clean sweep in two rounds.

Overview

• Race 2 - Razgatlioglu goes double-treble to round out perfect Donington weekend

• Superpole Race - Razgatlioglu wins again as Rea claims first podium for Yamaha

• Race 1 - Razgatlioglu takes a dominant win as Bautista goes from 11th to third

• Superpole - Razgatlioglu takes Donington pole by over half-a-second as Scott Redding makes the front row

• Friday Practice - Razgatlioglu tops both Friday sessions, with Danilo Petrucci closing the gap in the afternoon

• 2023 - Razgatlioglu denies Bautista treble with Superpole Race win

Race 2

Toprak Razgatlioglu secured his third win from three races at the UK WorldSBK in Race 2, beating Nicolo Bulega.

Bulega took his second second place of the day, after he was the closest rider to Razgatlioglu in the Superpole Race, but as in the two previous races he and the rest of the WorldSBK field were powerless to stop the #54 from adding another victory to his tally — this his seventh in succession and the completion of his second consecutive triple win.

Bulega was never really under pressure from Alex Lowes behind, the factory Kawasaki rider embroiled in a battle with Scott Redding over third early on, before the #22 managed to pull away in the second half of the race. Redding held onto fourth place despite the strong pace of Alvaro Bautista in the closing stages.

Bautista had lost out early in the race, battling with Andrea Locatelli on lap one, then Danilo Petrucci and Jonathan Rea later on. It meant that, by the time he got to the front of that group, he was four seconds behind Redding.

Bautista ended up fifth, ahead of Petrucci who secured sixth place late on after battling with his compatriot, Locatelli, who finished as the top Yamaha in seventh. Jonathan Rea was eighth, ahead of Dominique Aegerter and Axel Bassani who completed the top 10.

Full WorldSBK results from the Race 2 at Donington are below.

2024 WorldSBK Donington Results | Race 2

Superpole Race

Toprak Razgatlioglu secured his second victory of the WorldSBK UK weekend at Donington Park in the Superpole Race, as Jonathan Rea took his first podium finish for Yamaha.

Rea was the star off the start, exiting turn one in fourth place, and taking third from Sam Lowes at the Old Hairpin on the opening lap. 

At the front, Nicolo Bulega had made the holeshot ahead of Razgatlioglu, and the two were breaking away by the end of the first lap.

Razgatlioglu took until lap three to make his move to the front at Melbourne Hairpin, and from there he took off to a lead of over four seconds by the chequered flag. For Bulega’s part, he remained unchallenged in second place, ahead of Rea who capitalised on his good start and some battling behind to take his first Yamaha podium.

Behind, Scott Redding beat Alex Lowes to fourth place, while Alvaro Bautista was sixth. Andrea Locatelli looked at one stage to be in prime position to break away from that fourth-place pack and chase after Rea for the final podium spot when he was the first to get past Sam Lowes, but he ran wide at Coppice which put him back in the pack and he ended up seventh. Lowes, meanwhile, finished eighth, ahead of Danilo Petrucci who took the final point in ninth, while Andrea Iannone completed the top 10.

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

2024 WorldSBK Donington Results | Superpole Race

Race 1

Starting from pole position, Toprak Razgatlioglu was exceptional on his way to a dominant victory at Donington, winning by over 11 seconds after leading from lights-to-flag.

The Turkish rider made the holeshot and lapped consistently in the mid-1:26s throughout the race, with a few aberrations in the 1:27s, or in the low-1:26s and even a high-1:25 on lap three. His track position and pace combined to ensure there was never really a race for anything better than second place.

Even second was tied down fairly early by Alex Lowes, who came from ninth on the grid to escape with the silver medal position on lap 11, leaving Nicolo Bulega to deal with Scott Redding and Alvaro Bautista.

Bautista had started a couple of places further back than Lowes, but the crucial difference between the two in coming through the pack is that Lowes felt like he could attack on the front end, while Bautista was uncomfortable. That meant the reigning champion's work of cutting through the pack was always one or two places and one or two positions behind Lowes. In the end, it was that which decided the order they finished: Lowes in second, Bautista in third.

Nicolo Bulega ran in the podium positions for much of the race, but ultimately had to settle for fourth, not having the pace of any of the three riders ahead of him. Perhaps he was also fortunate the race was not one or two laps longer as Jonathan Rea was showing decent pace behind. In reality, this isn't fortune at all for Bulega, as Rea simply didn't have a good enough race to catch the Italian over the race's regulation distance. The six-times champion nonetheless had one of his more encouraging rides of the year in fifth place, ahead of his Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli, while Danilo Petrucci picked up the 'Top Independent' award in seventh place after qualifying 13th.

Dominique Aegerter was over seven seconds behind Petrucci in eighth place, but ahead of Michael van der Mark, who finished 25 seconds behind his victorious BMW teammate, while Remy Gardner completed the top 10.

Full WorldSBK results from Race 1 at Donington are below.

2024 WorldSBK Donington Results | Race 1

Superpole

Toprak Razgatlioglu blitzed the field at Donington Park to win Superpole for the UK Round, becoming the first rider to lap in under 1:25 at Donington in WorldSBK history.

The 1:24.8 that Razgatlioglu set on his first run of Superpole would have been comfortably enough for pole position, but on his second run he lowered that to a 1:24.629 to take pole by 0.6 seconds over Nicolo Bulega on the factory Ducati. Scott Redding made it a BMW 1-3 on the Bonovo Action machine, while Sam Lowes qualified fourth, alongside Dominique Aegerter and Michael van der Mark on the second row.

Jonathan Rea qualified on row three in eighth place, between his Pata Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli in seventh and Alex Lowes on the factory Kawasaki in ninth. Lowes had briefly been in third place, but was one of several riders to have their best laps cancelled. The same was true of Danilo Petrucci, who was fourth before losing his best lap to yellow flags, leaving him 13th, and reigning champion Alvaro Bautista had his best lap deleted, too, leaving him down in 11th. Remy Gardner in 10th and Garrett Gerloff in 12th join Bautista on row four.

Full WorldSBK results from Superpole at Donington are below.

2024 WorldSBK Donington Results | Superpole

Friday Practice

Toprak Razgatlioglu was fastest in both WorldSBK practice sessions on Friday at the UK Round in Donington, although a number of riders are within touch on the timing sheets.

Razgatlioglu was over 0.4 seconds clear of the field after FP1, but that gap was reduced by Danilo Petrucci to just over 0.2 seconds in FP2. Indeed, three riders finished FP2 within 0.3 seconds of Razgatlioglu, as Nicolo Bulega and Alex Lowes matched Danilo Petrucci on 1:26.2-second laps.

Fifth-fastest was Scott Redding, who made an encouraging start to his home weekend for the Bonovo BMW team, while Alvaro Bautista suffered a crash at turn one in the afternoon before ending the day sixth-fastest.

Andrea Locatelli was seventh and the best Yamaha, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Sam Lowes, and Axel Bassani who completed the top 10 for Kawasaki.

Full WorldSBK results from FP1 and FP2 at Donington are below.

2024 WorldSBK Donington Results | FP2

2024 WorldSBK Donington Results | FP1

2023

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | Race 2

2023 WorldSBK Results | Donington  | Superpole Race                 

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | Race 1

2023 WorldSBK Donington Results | Superpole