WorldSBK Imola Results, Race 2 - Golden opportunity

WorldSBK heads to Imola this weekend for the Italian round of the 2023 season. This page will be updated with WorldSBK Imola results throughout the weekend.

Overview

Race 2 - Razgatlioglu beats Bassani for Race 2 win as Bautista crashes out

Superpole Race - Razgatlioglu defeats Bautista in last lap scrap

Race 1 - Bautista overcomes Razgatlioglu for Imola Race 1 win

Superpole - Razgatlioglu on pole, Bautista denied by yellow flag, Ray impresses with fifth

FP2 - Three red flags, Rinaldi fastest in FP2

FP1 - Razgatlioglu fastest but Rea, Bautista, well in touch

Race 2

WorldSBK Race 2 was reduced from 19 laps to 15 laps due to concerts over the riders’ health presented by temperatures which were approaching 40 Celsius. Those temperatures, combined with Imola’s relatively old and low-grip surface, meant that tyre management would be key even over the reduced distance. This made Alvaro Bautista the favourite, but a crash for him opened the door for his opposition, of whom Toprak Razgatlioglu emerged the winner.

It was Bautista, now starting from second place after the Superpole Race, who made the holeshot, but he threw it away at the third corner of the race, crashing out and ensuring this would be the first ‘long race’ of the season that was not won by the Spaniard. (It is worth noting, though, that there is still the argument that Bautista is unbeaten in full distance races, due to the reduction of the race length.)

Bautista’s crash put Toprak Razgatlioglu in the lead, initially ahead of his teammate Andrea Locatelli, but a mistake from the Italian allowed his compatriot, Axel Bassani, into second place.

Bassani was followed through by Jonathan Rea, and both of them were then catching Razgatlioglu.

Bassani took the lead on lap eight, but he was unable to drop Razgatlioglu. The pair of them began to pull away from Rea as the race entered its last five laps.

Razgatlioglu re-took the lead on lap 12, and with three laps to go he was beginning his push to break Bassani.

It was a successful push for Razgatlioglu, and his lead at the start of the final lap was over one second. By the end of it, his gap was 1.966 seconds, as he took his first long race win of the season.

Bassani held on for second place, simply not having enough tyre at the end of the race to keep pace with Razgatlioglu, but enough to stay ahead of Jonathan Rea who completed the podium for the second time this weekend.

Fourth place went to Andrea Locatelli, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi (5th) and Bradley Ray, who took his best result in WorldSBK with sixth place.

Loris Baz was the top-placed BMW in seventh, ahead of Scott Redding (8th), Danilo Petrucci (9th), and Iker Lecuona (10th), who took a rare top 10 finish for Honda.

Full WorldSBK results from Race 2 in Imola are below.

2023 WorldSBK Imola Results | Race 2

Superpole Race

The WorldSBK Superpole Race took place in fairly sweltering conditions for a Sunday morning, with temperatures already over 30 Celsius by the time the 10-lapper was starting. Alvaro Bautista was arguably the favourite for victory in the Superpole Race, there was a clear opportunity for Toprak Razgatlioglu, just as there was in Donington. And, just as in Donington, Razgatlioglu took that chance, and took his third Superpole Race win of the season with it.

It was another strong start for Andrea Locatelli, who led into turn one ahead of his factory Yamaha teammate, Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Behind the Yamahas were three Ducatis in a line, with Alvaro Bautista leading Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Axel Bassani, although Jonathan Rea was able to disrupt that and move himself up to fourth place before the end of lap one.

It stayed pretty much that way until the end of lap five, when Razgatlioglu got held up behind Locatelli, which allowed Bautista to pass both Yamahas in quick succession.

The gap Bautista made during that exchange was eliminated by Razgatlioglu by the penultimate lap, and he made his move to the front at Piratella.

Where Razgatlioglu put in the final lap of his life, Bautista missed the apex at the final chicane on the penultimate lap, and then the apex at Tosa and Variante Gresini on the final lap, as well hesitating on which line to choose into the final chicane again on the final lap. This contrast meant that, while Bautista was never out of touch with Razgatlioglu, he was never able to be in the position to retake the lead on the last lap.

Razgatlioglu’s winning margin was 0.244 seconds, and 1.476 seconds further back was Andrea Locatelli, who took his first podium in three rounds.

Jonathan Rea was fourth, the top Kawasaki and just over two tenths behind Locatelli. Over one second behind Rea was Michael Ruben Rinaldi, the second-placed Ducati, in fifth place, directly ahead of the third-placed Ducati, Axel Bassani, in sixth.

Alex Lowes took seventh place, ahead of Danilo Petrucci (8th), Scott Redding (9th, top BMW), and Loris Baz (10th), who completed the top 10.

Before the beginning of the Superpole Race, it was announced that Race 2 would take place over 15 laps, reduced from the planned 19 due to the high temperatures which were expected to approach 40 Celsius in the afternoon. The Superpole Race itself, though, remained over 10 laps.

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

2023 WorldSBK Imola Results | Superpole Race

Race 1

Although Toprak Razgatlioglu started from pole position for WorldSBK Race 1 in Imola, Alvaro Bautista entered the race as the favourite, in part for his form and in pat for his ability to conserve the rear tyre. In the end, it was Bautista's drive, acceleration, and grip which won out.

Before the start of the race, there was some drama carrying over from qualifying, as Andrea Locatelli - who had initially had his best lap from qualifying deleted for yellow flag - had that lap reinstated, and therefore started from second on the grid. That bumped Bautista down to fourth place.

Further drama surrounded Xavi Vierge, who had to be wheeled back into pit lane before the warm-up lap for being below the minimum tyre pressure, and therefore had to start from the back of the grid.

From pole position, Toprak Razgatlioglu made a decent launch, but it was his teammate, Andrea Locatelli, who led into Variante Tamburello ahead of Axel Bassani. Alvaro Bautista also made a decent start, rising to third, ahead of Razgatlioglu. Similarly, Jonathan Rea had got himself up to fifth place early on, and made the front group a 10-wheeler.

Axel Bassani got to the front at the end of lap two, but he almost high-sided at the beginning of lap three, which dropped him back to fourth and reinstated Locatelli as the leader.

Razgatlioglu took time to find his way past Bautista. In the end, it was an outside move at the newly named Variante Gresini (formerly Variante Alta) that took the #54 into second place.

At the beginning of lap five, the Turkish rider found his way past his Yamaha teammate, Locatelli, and into the lead, and by the end of the lap the #55 was pushed back to fourth, behind Bautista and Rea.

From there, it was briefly a three-way battle at the front between Razgatlioglu, Bautista, and Rea, but by lap 10 the first two had pulled away, by around one second, from the #65 Kawasaki.

It was clear that Bautista was faster than Razgatlioglu, the question was whether he could find a definitive way past the Yamaha ahead of him. In Imola, thanks to its layout meaning the riders are rarely not turning, this was less straightforward for Bautista than in other circuits.

But, when he finally got to the front on the exit of the Variante Gresini on lap 11, Bautista was able to put a few corners together at the front which was enough to break Razgatlioglu.

In the final seven laps, Bautista edged his gap out to three seconds, his winning margin relatively comfortable in the end at 3.672 seconds.

Razgatlioglu and Rea completed the podium with over four seconds between them, while Locatelli (4th), Michael Ruben Rinaldi (5th), and Danilo Petrucci (6th) completed the top six.

Axel Bassani never really recovered from the early rear slide he had after just taking the lead, and finished seventh. He was ahead of Loris Baz (8th, top BMW), Alex Lowes (9th), and Scott Redding (10th) who rounded out the top 10.

Full WorldSBK results from Race 1 in Imola are below.

2023 WorldSBK Imola Results | Race 1

Superpole

WorldSBK Superpole in Imola was conditioned by yellow flags, which cost several riders their best respective laps, which had varying levels of severity between the various riders impacted by the lap deletions. Toprak Razgatlioglu came out of the situation in the best shape, taking his third pole position of 2023.

Alvaro Bautista seemed that he had pole position in the bag with his first lap on the SCQ tyre, but yellow flags for Axel Bassani’s crash at the first Rivazza cost him his lap.

The same thing happened on Bautista’s final lap, this time with yellow flags at the final chicane for a crash for Iker Lecuona. This time, Michael Ruben Rinaldi was also affected, and so were Toprak Razgatlioglu and Andrea Locatelli.

However, for Razgatlioglu, the impact was minimal, as he took pole position with his only valid lap on the SCQ. For Locatelli, the yellow flags dropped him from second to fourth.

Locatelli’s demotion was to the benefit of Axel Bassani and especially Alvaro Bautista, as the Motocorsa Ducati rider moved from third to second, and the World Championship leader from fourth - on row two - to third, at the back of the front row.

Alongside the aforementioned Locatelli on the second row for both Race 1 and the Superpole Race will be two Brits, first Scott Redding (5th, top BMW) and then Bradley Ray, who took his best WorldSBK qualifying result in sixth place.

It was a disappointing qualifying for Kawasaki, with Jonathan Rea in seventh and Alex Lowes in 11th. High temperatures have been the nemesis of the ZX-10RR for a while by now, and that seems to be the major climatic theme of this weekend in Imola.

Rea will be alongside Michael Ruben Rinaldi (perhaps the biggest loser from the yellow flags as he dropped from the middle of the second row to the middle of the third row in eighth), and Loris Baz.

Danilo Petrucci rounded out the qualifying top 10 after his #9 Barni Spark Ducati was fitted with a new engine following an issue in FP3 on Saturday morning. He will be joined by the aforementioned Lowes, and Dominique Aegerter on row four.

Full WorldSBK results from Superpole in Imola are below.

2023 WorldSBK Imola Results | Superpole

FP2

WorldSBK FP2 in Imola was more dramatic than hoped for some or anticipated for most, with contact between teammates and three red flags. The periods of the session which were actually under green flag, though, saw Michael Ruben Rinaldi go fastest.

The session got off, immediately, to an odd start, as Garrett Gerloff lost control of his Bonovo BMW M1000RR on the entry to the first Rivazza and collided with his teammate, Loris Baz.

Shortly afterwards, Gabriele Ruiu crashed at the final chicane, pulling gravel onto the track on the exit of said chicane which required a red flag to clean. Five minutes after the session resumed, Jonathan Rea caused a red flag by the same means.

The exact cause of the crashes was uncertain, of course, but the track temperature for FP2 was around 10 degrees hotter than in FP1. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu put on a particularly entertaining show throughout the second half of FP2, sliding the rear of his Yamaha into and out of almost every corner. It was not unusual for the Turkish rider, but Razgatlioglu’s riding technique is almost unique in never becoming anything remotely close to underwhelming.

Still, it took the #54 until the final five minutes to get close to his FP1 time.. That put him second initially, but an improvement from Alex Lowes, which put him fastest, dropped Razgatlioglu back to third place.

For Lowes, his time was only good enough for second place (and top Kawasaki) in the end, because Michael Ruben Rinaldi went fastest by 0.151 seconds after the third and final red flag of FP2, which was brought out for the same reason as the first two, but this time Tito Rabat was the culprit.

Garrett Gerloff, in contrast to the start of his session, finished well and as the top BMW by setting the third-fastest time, ahead of Axel Bassani (4th), Andrea Locatelli (5th, top Yamaha) and Danilo Petrucci (6th), who completed the top six.

Alvaro Bautista was seventh-fastest, but he blew Acque Minerali on his final lap that would have been an improvement. In the end, he was one of only three riders who did not improve on their respective FP1 times, the others, perhaps fittingly, were Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu, who finished FP2 in ninth and tenth place, respectively, while Scott Redding was eighth.

Full WorldSBK results for both combined practice and FP2 in Imola are below.

2023 WorldSBK Imola Results | FP2

2023 WorldSBK Imola Results | Combined FP

FP1

WorldSBK FP1 in Imola got the Italian round off to a dry start, in contrast to the thundery downpours of Thursday. In the first World Superbike session at the legendary Italian track since 2019, Toprak Razgatlioglu set the fastest time.

It was a good start to the weekend for Toprak Razgatlioglu, who followed Jonathan Rea for numerous laps and ended the session fastest.

Rea, though, will feel confident after setting a lap that might have been good enough for the top spot had he not been held up slightly by Iker Lecuona in the final chicane.

The #65 ended FP1 in second place, ahead of Alvaro Bautista, who himself displayed a strong pace that should keep him in contention with the likes of Razgatlioglu and Rea, despite this being a circuit which the current points leader does not count among his favourites.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi had a terrible weekend in Donington, and the success of Nicolo Bulega in the World Supersport Championship is making the #21’s position in the factory Ducati WorldSBK team increasingly weak, it seems. However, it was a decent morning for Rinaldi, finishing fourth fastest, one place below Bautista.

Axel Bassani, another rider after that second factory Ducati seat, finished FP1 in fifth, and Danilo Petrucci made it four Ducatis in the top six places in FP1.

Andrea Locatelli was the second-placed Yamaha in seventh, half-a-second slower than his teammate, Razgatlioglu, and just ahead of the second-fastest Kawasaki of Alex Lowes.

The top 10 was rounded out by two BMWs - first Garrett Gerloff, and second Scott Redding, who it seems could be on his way to partner Gerloff in the Bonovo Action BMW team next season.

Full WorldSBK results and times from FP1 in Imola are below.

2023 WorldSBK Imola Results | FP1

Ducati DRE | Racetrack Academy Review at Silverstone