Gordon Ritchie | July 4, 2021
Race Two
A crash while leading from Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) gifted a clear track to Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and the Turkish star needed no second invitation to romp away and win his second race of the Donington weekend.
Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) came through from outside the podium places to score second place, 2.243 seconds back from Razgatlioglu.
Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) won a tense final battle for the final podium place, from the upwardly mobile Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). A slide and running wide into the Melbourne loop on the final lap prevented his last chance of a passing manoeuvre after 23 laps and he was fourth.
Toprak Razgatlioglu sticks it on the nose after dominating race two. He now leads the championship, a first for his nation of Turkey.
Early in the race Razgatlioglu and Rea made a short but clean break from the other leading contenders, as the two men at the head of the championship points table occasionally fought each other.
Rea retook the lead with 14 laps to go, at Coppice, as Razgatlioglu ran wide on the entry.
On the same corner of Coppice Rea was to fall on lap 11, restarting his bike but finishing outside the points.
Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was fifth, 1.1 seconds ahead of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team). Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven Ducati) placed seventh, chasing down Lowes for a time.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) and Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) completed the Race Two top 10.
In the championship, Razgatlioglu is the new series leader, by two points, with 183. Rea is now on 181, Redding 117, and Lowes 114.
2021 British WorldSBK Results—Race Two
| 1 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu |
(Yam) |
|
| 2 |
Garrett Gerloff |
(Yam) |
+ 2.243s |
| 3 |
Tom Sykes |
(BMW) |
+ 4.522s |
| 4 |
Scott Redding |
(Duc) |
+ 5.151s |
| 5 |
M. van der Mark |
(BMW) |
+ 13.315s |
Superpole Race
Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) scored the ‘sprint’ race win on Sunday morning at Donington by a clear margin of over two seconds, from not one but two factory BMW riders. Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) finished second and third respectively.
With most riders finally opting for intermediate tires on the grid, but the occasional high profile name going for wets, the track stayed relatively dry over race distance.
A second lap crash from Alex Lowes robbed him of a seemingly certain runner-up spot behind Rea, as he clipped a white line at the base of the Old Hairpin and lost first the rear, then the front, on lap two. He restarted to finish 14th.
From then on it and with Rea easing out the leading pace it was a fight for second place, with VDM and then Sykes most likely, and the English rider finally easing out enough of a lead to take the runner-up spot certain.
Rea made it look easy with the Superpole race win.
Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) was in podium contention for almost the whole race, pushing hard behind VDM but still a strong fourth place in the final results, just under four seconds from Rea.
Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) was fifth and Saturday race winner Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) sixth, unable to make the kind of early push that would have given him the potential for a sprint race win.
With lots of changes of tire options on the grid, as the possibility of more rain continued, Razgatlioglu was originally said to be on wets but had made a very late change to intermediate tires.
Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was one of few who went for the wet option, and paid the price, finishing 18th and last of the finishers.
Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) was a strong seventh and second top Independent rider, with Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven Ducati) eighth, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) ninth and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 10th.
Local rider Luke Mossey (Outdo Kawasaki TPR) was 17th on rain tires.
2021 British WorldSBK Results—Superpole Race
| 1 |
Jonathan Rea |
(Kaw) |
|
| 2 |
Tom Sykes |
(BMW) |
+ 2.531s |
| 3 |
M. van der Mark |
(BMW) |
+ 3.409s |
| 4 |
Leon Haslam |
(Hon) |
+ 3.955s |
| 5 |
Garrett Gerloff |
(Yam) |
+ 4.067s |
Race One
From 13th place on the grid Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) moved up to the podium positions in half a lap of a damp and treacherous Donington Park Race One, before taking the lead from Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) after just one and a half laps.
Determined to not let Razgatlioglu get way Rea was to run off track on the run down Craner Curves (having already had several moments on the entry to Redgate) and come back on track still in second place.
He started reeling in Razgatlioglu in the first quarter of the race but it was to be in vain as the Turkish rider won by over two seconds, while slowing up across the line.
Toprak Razgatlioglu was sensational in the opening laps and held on for a first Donington Par win ahead of Rea (1).
Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) fell from third place after a great fight for the podium positions and remounted to finish seventh. His front end loss at the Goddards hairpin let Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) in to score his first podium since the first weekend of the season at Motorland Aragon.
Front row starters Tom Sykes and Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad) finished up fourth and fifth respectively, with VDM third for a time until he got passed by several riders in succession.
Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) was the top Honda rider in sixth place, in the same loose group as Van der Mark ahead of him and Gerloff behind.
Alvaro Bautista (HRC Honda) was eighth, after being passed by a determined Gerloff. Independent riders Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Axel Bassani (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) was
Completed the top ten places in race One, with Bassani also the top Ducati rider of all as Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven Ducati) was 11th and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) 12th in a race that started out basically wet but ended up dry.
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) crashed hard enough to tear the front end off his R1, while very earlier in the race Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) had fallen after high-siding at the start of the run down the hill towards the Old Hairpin.
One-off rider Luke Mossey (Outdo Kawasaki TPR) was 14th.
2021 British WorldSBK Results—Race One
| 1 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu |
(Yam) |
|
| 2 |
Jonathan Rea |
(Kaw) |
+ 2.419s |
| 3 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kaw) |
+ 12.261s |
| 4 |
Tom Sykes |
(BMW) |
+ 14.625s |
| 5 |
M. van der Mark |
(BMW) |
+ 16.447s |
Friday
After a recent Misano WorldSBK Race and a MotoGP experience at Assen Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) got to see another new track up close and personal for the first time as he approached the two Free Practice sessions at Donington Park.
The second year WorldSBK Independent Rider left Friday as fastest of all after two free practice sessions, thinking Donington a lot like some tracks in America. He felt at home having after outpaced even Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) – by 0.317 seconds – into second place on his visit to the place WorldSBK started all those years ago.
Garrett Gerloff put it straight to the top at the end of FP2 at Donington Park.
Third fastest rider was the one who signed with Yamaha for two more years, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team), with first session struggler and second session achiever Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) fourth on his first visit to Donington on a Kawasaki.
Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) felt his bike a little skittish again and was fifth on day one, while one-time Donington top man Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) placed sixth, 0.678 seconds behind Gerloff.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was seventh on the second official Ducati, with Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) eighth.
The top ten was rounded out by independent Kawasaki rider Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and official BMW runner, Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team).
With a change in the weather expected for Saturday this dry Friday may prove little for the races but few would have assumed that the name Gerloff would appear at the top of the times on his first day at Donington per se.
There is no WorldSSP action at Donington Park.
2021 British WorldSBK Results—Friday
| 1 |
Garrett Gerloff |
(Yam) |
1:27.524s |
| 2 |
Jonathan Rea |
(Kaw) |
+ 0.317s |
| 3 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu |
(Yam) |
+ 0.524s |
| 4 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kaw) |
+ 0.607s |
| 5 |
Scott Redding |
(Duc) |
+ 0.626s |
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