WorldSBK Czech Republic: Triple Treble for Razgatlioglu as it Gets Worse for Bautista

WorldSBK heads to the Autodrom Most this weekend for the sixth round of the 2024 season with Toprak Razgatlioglu currently dominating the championship and holding a 41-point championship lead. After taking pole and Race 1 victory on Saturday, Razgatlioglu was on the top step again in both Sunday races, while Alvaro Bautista crashed out of both races on Sunday.

Overview

• Race 2 - Razgatlioglu secures Most treble as Petrucci wipes out Bautista

• Superpole Race - Razgatlioglu dominant again as Ducati implodes late on

• Race 1 - Razgatlioglu takes commanding victory in Race 1 as Petrucci beats Iannone to second

• Superpole - Razgatlioglu under the lap record for Most pole

• Friday Practice - Razgatlioglu beats Bautista to Friday's fastest time

• 2023 - Bautista beaten twice as Rea picks up first 2023 win

Race 2

Toprak Razgatlioglu secured his third straight treble in WorldSBK Race 2 at Most, winning by over two seconds after Alvaro Bautista encountered more trouble.

Razgatlioglu was beaten to the holeshot by Bautista's Ducati teammate, Nicolo Bulega, and it wasn't until lap five that he took the lead. From there, he was peerless, as he has been since Misano, winning by over three second in the end.

Bulega himself was similarly comfortable in second place, even if he had nothing for the rampant Razgatlioglu, who has now won 10 races in a row, unbeaten since Race 2 at the Dutch Round. Andrea Locatelli took third place, after a mid-race battle with Michael van der Mark, but was over two seconds back of Bulega, while Remy Gardner was just over a second further behind his fellow Yamaha rider.

Van der Mark ended up fifth, ahead of Jonathan Rea who mounted a strong recovery to sixth after losing out at the start, his final pass being put on Michael Ruben Rinaldi who ended up seventh. 

Andrea Iannone finished eighth, but his race was compromised at the first turn when Danilo Petrucci crashed with Bautista. Petrucci aimed for a gap between Bautista and Remy Gardner, with Bautista to the left of the Australian. That gap closed as Petrucci arrived, and Bautista was the major victim as he scored his second DNF of the day. For Iannone, he was forced to go through the escape road at the first chicane as he avoided the two crashed Ducatis ahead of him.

Behind, Alex Lowes was ninth after a jump start and resultant double-long-lap penalty, and Iker Lecuona rounded out the top 10, having run as high as sixth early on.

Full WorldSBK results from the Race 2 in Most are below.

2024 WorldSBK Czech Republic Results | Race 2

Superpole Race

Toprak Razgatlioglu secured his 50th career WorldSBK victory in the Superpole Race in the Czech Republic, a win which also marked the ninth of his current unbeaten run.

Razgatlioglu made the holeshot at the start, but it was Nicolo Bulega who led the first lap ahead of Alvaro Bautista.

By lap three, the BMW rider was back in the lead, making his passes at turn one. He didn't have the pace to leave the Ducati riders completely, but he was far enough ahead by the end of the penultimate lap that all Bulega and Bautista could hope for was second.

Sensing he would have the pace to pull away from his teammate if he led after the first chicane, Bautista - who had made a mistake soon after Razgatlioglu took the lead which cost him around half-a-second to Bulega - tried to pass at turn one. Bulega, though, anticipated this, and braked late as a result. Bautista's determination to make the pass ultimately meant that Bulega hopped over the gravel on the inside of turn two, while the reigning champion tried to avoid cutting the chicane, and leaving himself open to incurring a penalty for not losing enough time in doing so, but ran wide anyway, over the kerb, and into the gravel. Bautista crashed, and although he remounted he pit at the end of the final lap, not taking the chequered flag.

That left Bulega to manage a now much reduced gap to Alex Lowes, who had been in contention with the Ducatis earlier in the race, but dropped off in the second half, something that Bulega did successfully to take second, while Lowes secured third - a bonus after he'd already settled for fourth before the late Ducati debacle.

Danilo Petrucci took fourth place ahead of Remy Gardner who rounded out the top five, once again as the Best Yamaha rider, albeit by less than one second ahead of Andrea Locatelli in sixth. Andrea Iannone was seventh, ahead of Michael van der Mark and Jonathan Rea, the six-times champion being the biggest beneficiary of Bautista's crash, as it gave him the final point and, more importantly, the final position on the third row for Race 2.

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

2024 WorldSBK Czech Republic Results | Superpole Race

Race 1

Toprak Razgtlioglu maintained his dominance of the WorldSBK Czech Round in Race 1, winning by almost six seconds.

Razgatlioglu had topped every session until Race 1, including Superpole, meaning that he was perfectly placed on the grid to make the holeshot. That he did, and from there he was never headed. He had a one-second advantage by the end of lap two, that was doubled a few laps later, and the only reason he didn't win by over seven seconds was because he wheelied his way to the line from the exit of the final corner.

Behind the BMW rider, things were less clear. Nicolo Bulega made his way into second early on, but soon after his pace began to drop. The Italian ended up sixth at the flag, and it was two other Ducatis who fought over the podium.

Danilo Petrucci held second place Andrea Iannone on lap 10, and a lack of battling between them meant that they were able to pull far away from the riders behind. It wasn't until the very closing stages that Iannone put a move on Petrucci, but he ran wide when he did it. Petrucci reclaimed the advantage, and had a gap big enough to manage until the flag.

The Italian duo completed the podium, Petrucci ahead of Iannone, although it was Alvaro Bautista who had the best pace at the end. Bautista had started 10th with a three-place grid penalty, but was fifth by the end of the first sector on lap one. The reigning champion, though, then started to fall backwards. He battled over fifth with Remy Gardner and Alex Lowes, losing out to Gardner while Lowes fell. Bautista would get Gardner back later, and would pass Bulega, too, on his descent through the pack, but the #1 Ducati rider lost too much time in the early phases to make his late pace count for a podium.

Gardner took fifth place, ahead of Nicolo Bulega, while Andrea Locatelli was seventh. Garrett Gerloff finished eighth, ahead of Michael van der Mark and Jonathan Rea who completed the top 10 following a trip through the long-lap penalty lane for cutting the first chicane.

Full WorldSBK results from Race 1 in Most are below.

2024 WorldSBK Czech Republic Results | Race 1

Superpole

Toprak Razgatlioglu set pole position in Most by the slender margin of 0.665 seconds over Andrea Iannone, the Turkish rider taking his third pole in succession.

Razgatioglu had already set a new lap record in FP3, when Iannone used him as a marker to go second-fastest. In Superpole, Razgatlioglu demolished his own record by more than the amount he beat Iannone by in Superpole, when the Italian again tried to latch on to the Turkish rider.

Iannone's choice of target was certainly ambitious, but it also worked, with the #29 qualifying second on his Most debut. Alex Lowes completed the front row for Kawasaki.

Nicolo Bulega's fourth-place qualifying was his worst of the year, and he will be joined on the depths of row two by Remy Gardner and Danilo Petrucci.

Alvaro Bautista once again missed the front two rows, qualifying seventh, alongside Garrett Gerloff and Andrea Locatelli on row three. Michael Ruben Rinaldi completed the qualifying top 10, ahead of Scott Redding and Sam Lowes who will join him on the fourth row.

Full WorldSBK results from Superpole in Most are below.

2024 WorldSBK Czech Republic Results | Superpole

Friday Practice

Torpak Razgatlioglu was fastest in WorldSBK practice on Friday in the Czech Republic, topping both sessions.

In FP1, Razgatlioglu headed Remy Gardner by almost 0.3 seconds, but the big improver in the afternoon, despite Razgatlioglu himself improving his own time by 0.4 seconds, was Alvaro Bautista, who ended FP1 only 0.103 seconds shy of the BMW rider's benchmark.

Bautista was also the only rider to lap in the 1:31s, other than Razgatlioglu, all day, Jonathan Rea finishing third at a 1:32.033.

Alex Lowes was fourth, ahead of Nicolo Bulega, Danilo Petrucci, Remy Gardner, Michael van der Mark, Andrea Locatelli, and Andrea Iannone who completed the top 10.

Full WorldSBK results from FP1 and FP2 in Most are below.

2024 WorldSBK Czech Republic Results | FP2

2024 WorldSBK Czech Republic Results | FP1

2023 WorldSBK Czech Republic

Mixed conditions led to mixed results at the 2023 WorldSBK Czech Round, as rain on Saturday saw Jonathan Rea claim his first and only win of the season for Kawasaki. On Sunday, Rea was second to Toprak Razgatlioglu in the Superpole Race, the Turk going onto have one of the battles of the season with Bautista in Race 2 before a tyre failure saw him high-side out of the lead, leaving Bautista to take victory.

2023 WorldSBK Czech Results | Race 2

2023 WorldSBK Czech Results | Superpole Race

2023 WorldSBK Czech Results | Race 1

2023 WorldSBK Czech Results | Superpole