Gordon Ritchie | February 25, 2024
Sunday WorldSBK Race Two
The scheduled two-part WorldSBK Race, over a planned 20-laps, was delayed first by a massive oil spill from a national class rider’s machine, which took a lot of time and effort to clean up. There was then a ‘race’ which was red flagged shortly after a highly visible tech issue and oil leak from potential podium rider Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and then immediately red flagged after a massive highside from Jonathan Rea (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team). That incident made the following Remy Gardner (GRT Yamaha) have to ‘bunny-hop’ over Rea’s machine, landing so hard his front tyre deflated.
Rea was taken away in a stretcher but was later diagnosed to have suffered no more than major bruising and abrasions and was on his feet in the paddock shortly after his medical checks had been completed.
Alex Lowes had the weekend of his WorldSBK career to date with two Sunday race wins.
In the restarted Race Two, now running 1 Hours and 40 minutes late, an 11-lap contest was declared, making it nearly a true sprint instead of a two-part tyre safety-first sprint.
In another race that messed with any preconceived ideas of who would finish where, Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) led almost throughout, only being caught in the final lap by eventual winner Alex Lowes (KRT) who took his second race win of the day in fine style, passing the Ducati rider (and his almost destroyed tyre) around the outside approaching the Lukey Heights corner.
Lowes was only 0.048 seconds up on Bautista at the flag, but worth every inch of his win given the opposing talents on show in 2024.
The last podium place went to another rider who – like Bautista – had not got onto a podium in the previous two races, Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Ducati).
Danilo Petrucci stuck it out for a podium in third.
A technical issue that caused a false neutral and then a crash dumped Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) on his backside, ending his attempted pass on eventual winner Lowes.
Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven Ducati) was fourth, and Saturday rookie race winner, Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) fifth.
Fast early in the race, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) was sixth, ahead of Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Ducati) and eventual top BMW rider, Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW).
At the end of another entirely mad race, to end a completely unpredictable and jeopardy filled test/race season opening event, the Race Two top ten was completed by Michael van der Mark (ROKit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Dominique Aegerter (GRT Yamaha) – who was penalised to drop one place for overtaking on a yellow flag.
It was a weekend to forget for home hero Remy Gardner.
Xavi Vierge (HRC Honda) the top Honda rider was 13th.
After one round and three completely berserk races Lowes leads the championship with 50 points, Bulega has 41, Locatelli 29, Iannone 29 and Bautista 27.
2024 Australian WorldSBK Results—Race Two
| 1 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) |
|
| 2 |
Alvaro Bautista |
(Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) |
+0.048s |
| 3 |
Danilo Petrucci |
(Barni Spark Racing Team) |
+1.178s |
| 4 |
Andrea Iannone |
(Team GoEleven) |
+1.275s |
| 5 |
Nicolo Bulega |
(Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) |
+2.346s |
Sunday WorldSSP Race Two
Race One winner Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team Ducati) doubled up his top points scores after winning a shortened one-part WorldSSP race at PI on grey and overcast Sunday afternoon.
An earlier oil spill from an ASBK machine led to a huge delay in the planned schedule, with the race cut to nine laps as a result.
Marcel Schrötter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) was second in Race Two, one better than he had been in Race One on Saturday. He almost caught a celebrating Montella at the line, losing out by just 0.203 seconds.
Another highly disrupted WorldSSP race start saw several riders try to wave off the start procedure, but the race went ahead anyway, as a straight fight to the flag.
Two for two for Yari Montella marked a perfect weekend in WorldSSP.
Adrian Huertas (Aruba Racing Ducati) made a breakthrough to the podium after his Saturday disaster, scoring third place. He raced on his own at the end, after Schroetter’s late charge towards Montella.
Federico Caricasulo (Motozoo ME AIR Racing MV Agusta) placed fourth, at the head of a warring bunch of three other riders. Race One faller Valentin Debise (Evan Bros WorldSSP) ended his Aussie weekend with a fifth place, one position up on Bahattin Sofuoglu (MV Agusta Reparto Corse F3 800 RR) and one-time World Champion Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha) was seventh.
John McPhee (WRP-RT Motorsport by SKM-Triumph) was a lone eighth, Lorenzo Baldassarri (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Ducati) ninth and local hero Oli Bayliss tenth – some 14 seconds from the win.
Double faller Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) no-scored after retiring in the pits.
In the championship points Montella has a perfect 50, Schrötter 36 and Caricasulo 26.
2024 Australian WorldSSP Results—Race Two
| 1 |
Yari Montella |
(Barni Spark Racing Team) |
|
| 2 |
Marcel Schroetter |
(MV Agusta Reparto Corse) |
+0.203s |
| 3 |
Adrian Huertas |
(Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team) |
+1.658s |
| 4 |
Federico Caricasulo |
(Motozoo ME AIR Racing) |
+5.289s |
| 5 |
Valentin Debise |
(Evan Bros. WorldSSP Racing Team) |
+5.554s |
Sunday WorldSBK Superpole Race
A superb ten lap Superpole race in WorldSBK saw the novelty of a Kawasaki race winner other than ex-Kawasaki Jonathan Rea. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) managed to make enough of a break to win his first WorldSBK Race since 2020.
A multiple rider fight was led by Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven Ducati) until he found machine issues. He dropped back quickly to finish 14th.
With Lowes being chased hard by Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) the English rider managed to keep a 1.157 gap at the flag.
Alex Lowes leads Iannone. He held on for the Superpole win, his first race win since 2020.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) placed third, with the resurgent force of Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) fourth – and just 1.812 seconds from Lowes.
Race One winner Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) placed fifth, but almost three seconds from the Superpole Race win.
Remy Gardner (GRT Yamaha) put himself in an early podium threatening position but ended up sixth. His team-mate Dominique Aegerter (GRT Yamaha) ended up seventh.
Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Ducati) was eighth, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) ninth and Jonathan Rea (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) 10th.
2024 Australian WorldSBK Results—Superpole Race
| 1 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) |
|
| 2 |
Andrea Locatelli |
(Pata Prometeon Yamaha) |
+1.157s |
| 3 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu |
(ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) |
+1.738s |
| 4 |
Alvaro Bautista |
(Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) |
+1.812s |
| 5 |
Nicolo Bulega |
(Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) |
+2.838s |
Saturday WorldSBK Race One
A quite sublime first race followed on from some pre-season ridiculousness as Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) continued his incredible rookie introduction to WorldSBK with a Race One win. His debutante veni, vidi, vici victory saw him fast enough, smooth enough and clever enough to hold off the more than determined challenges from a number of rivals.
Not some of the rivals we all expected, but true rivals all the same in what was a brilliant two-part race that featured mandatory tyre changes sometime between laps nine to 11.
Bulega led the race on two occasions, and more-or-less made his race win certain after exiting from his mandatory pit stop pit stop in the lead and then almost immediately setting a remarkable new lap record of 1’28.564 on his fresh tires.
Nicolo Bulega’s debut was almost unmatched in modern WorldSBK competition.
He was being caught by eventual second placed rider Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) but Bulega’s eventual margin of victory of 2.280 was clear enough, as the rookie Ducati rider was able to wick it up again over the last two laps to stay comfortably ahead.
Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven Ducati) made an incredible impact on his return to sanctioned race action. His first ever WorldSBK experience saw him third in the opening race, and but for an inability to adjust his engine brake – which saw him run wide on two occasions and lose time – he thought he could have had even more.
As he finished only 2.630 seconds from a rookie win of his own… he mixed a degree of regret in with his elation at making such a strong first race showing.
The last time there was an all-Italian podium in WorldSBK was way back in 1993, in Race Two at Misano – with Giancarlo Falappa, Mauro Lucchiari and Fabrizio Pirovano monopolising the top three places on home soil.
Off podium but in the fight all the way, was new lead Kawasaki rider, Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team). He was in a truly tactile battle with Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) at times, even having his handlebar taken in one corner, but even though Razgatlioglu crossed the line in fourth, Lowes inherited that position as Razgatlioglu had exited from pitlane just 0.245 seconds early, meaning he had five times that gap added to his race time, leaving him just behind Lowes in the final race classification.
Andrea Iannone got the holeshot in his first race after four years and made it onto the podium in third.
Dominique Aegerter (GRT Yamaha) placed seventh, with the outrageous occasional pace of Michael van der Mark (ROKit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) taking him to an eventual seventh. Eighth was Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Ducati). He was the last rider to finish within ten seconds of the race winner Bulega.
A late set-up find for Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) placed him ninth and the lone official Honda of Xavi Vierge (HRC Honda) took him to tenth place.
Local hope Remy Gardner (GRT Yamaha) was accidentally knocked of by an ambitious Axel Bassani (Kawasaki Racing Team) into MG, with the new KRT rider finishing 12th after taking a long lap penalty.
Two of last year’s big beasts found trouble in the new asphalt jungle, with Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) crashing and restarting to finish 15th and Jonathan Rea (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) having such bad vibrations through his bike he ended up 17th.
Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Ducati) was 13th in his first WorldSBK Race.
2024 Australian WorldSBK Results—Race One
| 1 |
Nicolo Bulega |
(Aruba.It Ducati) |
|
| 2 |
Andrea Locatelli |
(Pata Prometeon Yamaha) |
+2.280s |
| 3 |
Andrea Iannone |
(Team GoEleven Ducati) |
+2.630s |
| 4 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) |
+4.728s |
| 5 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu |
(ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) |
+5.706s |
Saturday WorldSSP
Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team Ducati) smashed the lap record and then blocked out the painful memories of a big crash in 2023 to win in Phillip Island, in what was a remarkably dramatic two-part race that featured a mandatory tyre stop at half race distance.
Adrian Huertas (Aruba Racing Ducati) had to be taken away from his pole position on the grid with tech issues on the startline, halting his ambitions and then stopping him racing altogether.
In a race where penalties affected several riders, Bahattin Sofuoglu (MV Agusta Reparto Corse F3 800 RR) had to start from the back of the grid after his tyre pressures had been measured to be too low.
Yari Montella made it look easy for the first win of the year.
Other riders made errors in coming back onto the track too soon, exiting under the pitlane intervention time limit, but for the podium trio of Montella, the fast charging Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) in eventual second and Marcel Schrötter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) the race was relatively clean, if intensely contested for the second and third places.
Montella won at a final canter on the resurfaced PI circuit, leaving with the new lap record of 1’31.271 – which was almost two seconds better than the previous record.
Off podium, Federico Caricasulo (Motozoo ME AIR Racing MV Agusta) led home a loose bunch in fourth place, with local rider Oli Bayliss (D34G Racing Ducati) a popular fifth. The rapidly advancing Sofuoglu was sixth and team-mates Jorge Navarro and John McPhee (WRP-RT Motorsport by SKM-Triumph) placed seventh and eighth.
Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha) was ninth, and penalised in his total race time, while local wild card Tom Toparis (Stop and Seal Racing Yamaha) was a strong tenth.
Can Öncü (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) and Glenn van Straalen (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) tangled early on with the Turkish rider unable to finish the race.
2024 Australian WorldSSP Results—Race One
| 1 |
Yari Montella |
(Barni Spark Racing Team) |
|
| 2 |
Stefano Manzi |
(Pata Yamaha Ten Kate Racing) |
+6.666s |
| 3 |
Marcel Schroetter |
(MV Agusta Reparto Corse) |
+6.968s |
| 4 |
Federico Caricasulo |
(Motozoo ME AIR Racing) |
+16.748s |
| 5 |
Oliver Bayliss |
(D34G Racing WorldSSP Team) |
+17.452s |
2024 Australian WorldSBK Results—Superpole
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) became the first WorldSBK rookie rider to secure a Superpole Qualifying ‘win’ since Ben Spies in 2009 thanks to his new track best lap of 1’27.916. The Italian rider, the current WorldSSP champion, was finally 0.238 seconds ahead of another rookie rider, Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven Ducati), who made his own strong impact in his first WorldSBK weekend. Iannone ran a ‘Go Show’ sticker on the back of his crash helmet, as a mark of respect for the recently deceased Aussie legend, Anthony Gobert.
An existing WorldSBK force, Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team), was demoted from the top of the timesheets to third, taking a front row start for Race One.
Dominique Aegerter (GRT Yamaha) towed no less a force than Jonathan Rea (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) around for a while, with the Swiss rider ending up fourth overall, and top Yamaha rider.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was fifth, with two Yamaha riders, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) and local hero Remy Gardner (GRT Yamaha), sixth and seventh.
Despite a massive FP3 crash exiting T12, Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Ducati) placed eighth, one place up on double world champion Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
The top nine riders qualified within 0.784 seconds of each other.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi (MotoCorsa Racing Ducati) was tenth, with Rea only 11th in his first Yamaha Superpole. Top Honda rider was Xavi Vierge (HRC Honda) in 13th, with his team-mate Iker Lecuona ruled out of the rest of race weekend with an injury.
Race One takes place at 16.00 local time, and as per the decision of the organisers, it will be a flag-to-flag race of 20 laps, with a mandatory rear tyre change at half race distance.
2024 Australian WorldSBK Results—Superpole
| 1 |
Nicolo Bulega |
(Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) |
1:27.916s |
| 2 |
Andrea Iannone |
(Team GoEleven) |
+0.238s |
| 3 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) |
+0.323s |
| 4 |
Dominique Aegerter |
(GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) |
+0.487s |
| 5 |
Toprak Razgatlioglu |
(ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) |
+0.604s |
Friday WorldSBK
The afternoon session of free practice at PI for the WorldSBK riders provided a very windy atmosphere, a super-grippy track (once it dried out) and a very short window in which to go for a morale-boosting lap time.
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) backed his pre-season prospects fully with a new track best lap of 1’29.042, just outpacing 2024 new sensation Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) by 0.059 seconds.
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) had to rely on his morning session time to go third, and top Yamaha rider.
Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Ducati) placed fourth fastest, Michael van der Mark (ROKit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) fifth, and class rookie Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Ducati) sixth. Another ‘rookie’ Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven Ducati) was seventh.
With Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Motocorsa Racing Ducati) eight, there were five Ducatis in the top eight places…
Local star Remy Gardner (GRT Yamaha) was ninth and top BMW rider was Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) in tenth place.
Alex Lowes starred at a track he loves with the fastest Friday time.
Such was the competition on day one that fully 14 riders were within the same 0.773 second bracket at the top of the combined timesheets.
Double champion Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was only 12th, however, six times champion and first time R1 rider Jonathan Rea (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) was 16th. Rea was unhappy with an issue on his bike (unspecified as yet) that was fundamental enough to leave him just one place ahead of Bradley Ray (Yamaha Motoxracing. WorldSBK Team).
FP3, Superpole qualifying and Race One now follow, on Saturday 24 February, for the WorldSBK riders.
2024 Australian WorldSBK Results—Friday
| 1 |
Alex Lowes |
(Kawasaki) |
1:29.042s |
| 2 |
Nicolo Bulega |
(Ducati) |
+ 0.059s |
| 3 |
Andrea Locatelli |
(Yamaha) |
+ 0.155 |
| 4 |
Danilo Petrucci |
(Ducati) |
+ 0.195s |
| 5 |
Michael van der Mark |
(BMW) |
+ 0.222s |
Friday WorldSSP
A late fall of rain prevented the WorldSSP Friday Superpole novelty from going the full distance but Adrian Huertas (Aruba Racing Ducati) had already set a new track best of 1’31.407 to take pole at his first attempt as a Ducati rider.
Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team Ducati) placed second on another Panigale V2, with the first non-twin being the triple of Marcel Schrötter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse) in third place.
Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) ended day one of the new season fourth quickest, with fellow Yamaha riders Valentin Debise (Evan Bros WorldSSP) and Lucas Mahias (GMT94 Yamaha) fifth and sixth.
Adrian Huertas topped Friday in WorldSSP.
The third row of the grid will be headed (for Race One at least) by eventual Superpole faller Bahattin Sofuoglu (MV Agusta Reparto Corse F3 800 RR) with another MV Agusta rider, Federico Caricasulo (Motozoo ME AIR Racing MV Agusta), eighth.
The top Triumph qualifier proved to be from an all-new team as Jorge Navarro (WRP-RT Motorsport by SKM-Triumph) placed ninth, one place up on Niki Tuuli (EAB Racing Ducati) and his V2 Panigale.
The rains that finally appeared to stop the WorldSSP clock just shy of the full session duration also prevented any early meaningful action in the second WorldSBK practice session.
Today’s Superpole result counts for grid positions in Race One, but in a new initiative for 2024, each rider’s fastest lap in Race One will determined their grid positions for Race Two – if only for the top nine grid slots. The others in Race Two will line up as per Friday Superpole qualifying.
2024 Australian WorldSBK Results—Friday
| 1 |
Adrian Huertas |
(Ducati) |
1:31.407s |
| 2 |
Yari Montella |
(Ducati) |
+ 0.159s |
| 3 |
Marcel Schroetter |
(MV Agusta) |
+ 0.412s |
| 4 |
Stefano Manzi |
(Yamaha) |
+ 0.598s |
| 5 |
Valentin Debise |
(Yamaha) |
+ 0.634s |
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