In Race 2, five manufacturers are in the top five positions and Bautista moves into the overall championship lead eighteen points ahead of Jonathan Rea. First podium of the season for Locatelli on Yamaha and for Honda with Iker Lecuona. Aegerter does the double in World Supersport
Assen (Netherlands), 24 April 2022 – The second round of the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship has just ended at the TT Circuit of Assen, in the Netherlands, giving fans yet again some thrilling racing action. In the morning, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) triumphed in the Tissot Superpole race ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) and Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati), who was penalised a position for exceeding the track limits on the last lap.
In WorldSBK Race 2, on the other hand, the Ducati rider triumphed ahead of Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and rookie Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) with Honda’s first podium of the season. In the afternoon races, even more riders chose to race with the new front A0843 SC1 development solution (option C), whereas for the rear, the entire grid chose the standard SCX solution (option A). After Rea and Razgatlioglu’s DNF in Race 2, Bautista is now first in the overall championship standings with eighteen points more than Jonathan Rea and forty-five points ahead of the defending World Champion.
Swiss rider Dominique Aegerter on Yamaha (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) took his third consecutive race of the season, leading in the overall championship standings with a thirty-point lead over Lorenzo Baldassarri.
WorldSBK Tissot Superpole Race:
At 11:06 in the morning, the Tissot Superpole Race got underway, reduced to just nine laps following a delayed start due to a problem on the grid. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) started extremely well from pole position, holding onto the lead with a small gap ahead of Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati), who set the new race record on the third lap with a time of 1’33.620, almost one second faster than the Race 1 Best Lap, and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK). A little over three seconds behind, Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) were battling it out for fourth. During the sixth lap, the defending World Champion dropped back to third place, leaving the Ducati rider in the lead, but under constant pressure from Rea, who managed to overtake halfway through the last lap. The Northern Irishman defended brilliantly on the final lap, finishing first to take home his one-hundredth win on Kawasaki.
WorldSBK Tissot Superpole Race Standings:
WorldSBK Race 2:
In Race 2, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) got off to an extremely good start, whereas Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) got sucked back into fifth place behind Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) and Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.It Racing - Ducati). Following a difficult start, the Northern Irishman managed to find the right pace, moving into third place and trying to overtake Bautista. He found the right opportunity on the fifth lap and lost no time trying for the race lead as well, but due to contact with the Yamaha rider, both ended up in the gravel to end their race early. Bautista took over as race leader with Iker Lecuona lying second and a group made up of Locatelli, Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing), Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), and Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) battling for the last podium position. The Bergamo native on Yamaha had the best pace of the group, overtaking Lecuona. Bautista finished first with an eight-second gap ahead of Locatelli and eleven seconds ahead of Lecuona.
WorldSBK Race 2 Standings:
WorldSSP Race 2:
From the second spot on the grid, Can Öncü (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) started well, followed by Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing), Lorenzo Baldassarri (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team), Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), and Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team), all within less than a second of one another. During the first half of the race, the Turkish rider widened a bit of a gap ahead of the others before being caught and overtaken by both the Ten Kate Racing and Evan Bros. team Yamaha riders. The Ducati rider made multiple attempts to overtake Öncü for the podium position, but without every finding the right chance. At a distance of 10 seconds behind them were Triumph riders Hannes Soomer (Dynavolt Triumph) and Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph), who had started respectively from the thirteenth and eighth spots on the grid. In the final laps of the race, Aegerter maintained the lead and there were no other changes in positions, with the Swiss rider finishing first ahead of Baldassarri and Öncü.
WorldSSP Race 2 Standings:
WorldSSP300 Race 2:
The final event of the day was the second FIM Supersport 300 World Championship race. Finishing on the top step of the podium was Hugo De Cancellis (Prodina Racing WorldSSP300) ahead of Álvaro Díaz (Arco Motor University Team) in second place and Yuta Okaya (Kawasaki Ninja 400 / MTM Kawasaki), third.
The Pirelli solutions chosen by the riders for the WorldSBK and WorldSSP races:
In WorldSBK, for the Tissot Superpole Race, all the riders on the grid opted for the SCX super soft solution for the rear (option A), whereas choices varied for the front. The most popular solution proved to be the new front SC1 A0843 development tyre (option C), with the remaining riders opting for the standard SC1 solution (option B), including Razgatlioglu and Locatelli, and the SC1 A0674 development solution (option A).
In WorldSBK Race 2, even more riders confirmed the choice of the new front A0843 SC1 development solution (option C) which was used by sixteen out of twenty-four riders on the grid, whereas others, including Bautista and Lecuona, confirmed their choice of the A0674 SC1 development tyre (option A). For the rear, the entire grid chose to race on the standard SCX solution (option A).
In the WorldSSP race, the entire grid went with the standard SC1 front solution (option A), whereas choices for the rear were mixed. Twenty-one riders opted for the standard SC0 solution (option B), with the remaining eight using the super soft standard SCX (option A).
Pirelli statistics for Tissot Superpole:
Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Race 2:
Pirelli statistics for WorldSSP Race 2:
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