13
November
2022
|
09:04
Europe/Amsterdam

Bautista Superbike World Champion on Ducati. Razgatlioglu and the standard Pirelli tyres protagonists on the blazing asphalt

In Indonesia, with record asphalt temperatures close to 70 degrees Centigrade, Race 2 gives us one of the most spectacular duels of the season between the Ducati rider and the Turkish Yamaha rider. Axel Bassani best private team rider of the year

FOCUS ON THE SUPERPOLE RACE

(asphalt: 54° C / air: 35° C)

You don’t change winning tyres. In the Superpole Race, the riders once again confirmed the compound combinations used in Race 1 almost unanimously with the standard SC0 rear (option B) and the SC1 A0843 front (option B). There were two exceptions: Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Hafizh Syahrin (MIE Racing Honda Team) who chose the standard SC1 (option A) at the front. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) started from pole position and managed to maintain the lead for the first two laps but during the third, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) successfully overtook him. However, the Turkish rider stayed extremely close to the six time world champion as the battle for third place raged on behind them between Andrea Locatelli ((Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). Razgatlioglu managed to take back the race lead on the sixth lap, holding onto it all the way to the chequered flag. Second place went to Rea and third to Locatelli. At the foot of the podium, in fourth place, was championship leader Álvaro Bautista. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) on Ducati, finishing the race fifth, was the best rider of the year among the private teams.

TYRES IN ACTION IN RACE 2

WorldSBK (asphalt: 68° C / air: 37° C)

In Race 2, the riders continued using the same options they had chosen for the first two races, so the standard SC0 rear and the SC1 A0843 front which proved to be the best combination to take on this track and its blazing hot asphalt with temperatures approaching 70 degrees Centigrade. The leading quartet, once again made up of Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Andrea Locatelli, and Álvaro Bautista, rode a separate race with respect to the rest of the pack. Rea took the lead straight away, overtaking pole man Razgatlioglu, and on the fourth lap Bautista managed to move from fourth to third, overtaking Locatelli for a virtual position on the podium. In the meantime, Bassani also gained the upper hand over Locatelli, taking his place behind the leading trio. On the sixth lap, Razgatlioglu snatched the lead back. On the following lap Rea found himself overtaken by Bautista as well. And this began one of the most spectacular duels of the season with Razgatlioglu and Bautista overtaking back and forth for first place. In the end, Toprak Razgatlioglu bested Bautista, but second place was enough to crown him 2022 World Champion. The third step of the podium went to Jonathan Rea.

WorldSSP (asphalt: 66° C / air: 36° C)

The second World Supersport race got underway with an air temperature of 36°C and 66°C asphalt temps. Some riders made a different tyre choice compared with Race 1, including newly crowned 2022 World Champion Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha) who switch from the standard SC1 to the standard SC2 (option B) for the front. The combination of the SC0 rear (option B) and the SC2 front (option B) was the most popular, but there were still riders who used the SC1 front solution. The only rider using the SCX rear was Brenner (VFT Racing). The Swiss rider, not satisfied with taking the championship title, took the win in Race 2, which ended on the 14th of the scheduled 19 laps because of a red flag due to a crash by Race 1 winner Niki Tuuli. Finishing behind the World Champion were Stefano Manzi (Dynavolt Triumph), second, and Can Öncü (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), third across the line.

For more details on the tyres used in the race by the individual riders in the WorldSBK and WorldSSP classes, please see the sheets attached to this press release.

GIORGIO BARBIER, MOTORCYCLE RACING DIRECTOR

“First of all, congratulations to Álvaro Bautista and Aruba-Ducati team for the world championship title and to Axel Bassani of the Motocorsa Racing team for his result as best private team rider of the year. Álvaro was incredibly consistent in his performance this year and Axel demonstrated that his is an extremely promising young talent, but credit for these results also goes to the Panigale V4 R and the staff at Borgo Panigale who developed an outstanding bike and worked very well throughout the season both in this championship and in MotoGP. If we want to sum up the weekend from a tyres point of view, record track temperatures were reached during the Mandalika weekend, approaching 70 degrees Centigrade. In such extreme conditions and with the new asphalt that provided little grip, it wasn’t particular development solutions that made the difference, but rather our standard tyres, specifically the SC0 rear, which even allowed the riders to maintain extremely high paces and break the track records. This is confirmation of the extreme versatility of our racing tyres which, as part of the standard range, are available to all riders and not reserved exclusively for the great champions.”