Challenging WorldSBK weekend at Donington Park

Donington Park. After more than two months and three race weekends, the time had finally come again at Donington Park (GBR) when at round eight of the FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK), the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team was once again able to compete with both of its regular riders on the BMW M 1000 RRs. Miguel Oliveira (POR) had already returned from injury at Misano (ITA), and now Danilo Petrucci (ITA) was also fit to make his comeback. However, the team’s home round proved to be a challenging one. The hard and difficult work in the search for the optimal setup, along with the determination shown by the riders and the team, went unrewarded. 11th place for Oliveira in Race 1 was the maximum that could be achieved this weekend.

In Superpole qualifying, Oliveira had to push beyond the limit in his pursuit of a fast lap time and suffered a minor crash at the end of the session. He therefore started from 12th on the grid. In Saturday‘s race, he finished 11th. In Sunday morning’s Superpole Race, the Portuguese rider was forced into the gravel while battling for position, dropping back to 20th place. He eventually finished 12th in the second feature race.

Petrucci qualified directly behind Oliveira in 13th place. He, too, tried in vain to move forward in the races. On his comeback weekend, the Italian recorded two 15th-place finishes in the feature races and 19th place in the Superpole Race.

WorldSBK now enters its long summer break. The ninth race weekend of the season will be held from 4th to 6th September at Magny-Cours, France.

Reactions after the Donington Park round.

Sven Blusch, Head of BMW Motorrad Motorsport: “After the difficult weeks dealing with the injuries of Miguel and Danilo, we were finally able to race with both of our regular riders again at Donington Park. Of course, we had hoped for a more successful weekend, but we were unable to translate the potential of the riders, the bike and the team into better results. Everyone worked hard, but we did not manage to unlock the bike’s performance at this track. Now our focus turns forward. WorldSBK is entering its summer break, and we will use this time to make further progress and return stronger in September at Magny-Cours.”

Christian Gonschor, Technical Director BMW Motorrad Motorsport: “Donington Park is always worth a visit, but this year both the riders and the entire team leave this legendary circuit disappointed. We were unable to meet the expectations we had set for ourselves. The pre-event test here proved somewhat misleading rather than helping us improve our performance. In addition, there were further unfortunate circumstances, such as Miguel’s fall in qualifying. Moreover, the reduced fuel-flow allowance we continue to have compared with our Japanese rivals as a result of winning the 2025 world title is clearly having an effect. This made our fight back through the field even more difficult in the races, even though our race pace itself was actually encouraging. After all, we were faster here than we were last year. The results, however, speak for themselves. We will therefore use the summer break for intensive testing so that we can provide our riders with a competitive motorcycle again at Magny-Cours. For now, the task is to recharge our batteries and regain our energy so that we can mount a full attack in the remaining races and demonstrate the potential of the BMW M 1000 RR.”

Shaun Muir, Team Principal ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “First of all, I’m really pleased to have both riders back in the pit box. We’ve clearly been missing our two permanent riders from a development perspective moving forward, and we have to thank Michael van der Mark for his work in their absence. Overall, the weekend was quite difficult for us. We tested here two weeks ago and thought we had a good base to start from, but we quickly realised in FP1 and FP2 that we were lacking in certain areas. Both guys qualified reasonably well. Miguel possibly could have been higher up, but for a small spill in the final sector. Nevertheless, all three races were quite a struggle. The starts were reasonable, but they got into a packed field where they simply couldn’t make much progress from the opening laps. Overall, we need to focus on reviewing the data, look ahead to the Magny-Cours test that’s coming up, and try to find confidence in the package. We need to give Miguel and Danilo that feeling of confidence back so we can get back to where we were before the injury.”

Miguel Oliveira, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “It has been a tough weekend. For sure, there are some positives to take. We scored points in both races but we were a little bit further behind than we had hoped so that gives us some work for the summer break. For sure we are eager to improve for the remainder of the season. The crew is obviously not happy with the results, nor am I, but the good thing is that we are all pushing in the same direction to try to improve this package and to do the best we can with what is left of this season. I am confident that with everybody’s help and the motivation that we all have to improve we will get better results again.”

Danilo Petrucci, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team: “First of all, I’m happy to be back racing, and especially to be with my team again. It’s been a difficult weekend, but physically I’m okay – I’m doing well. We have to work to improve our performance, but I have to say I enjoy racing and having some battles. Fortunately, during the summer break we’ll have some testing, so we’ll try to improve the situation. I can’t wait to ride my bike again. I’d like to thank all the crew, all the engineers from BMW, and the whole team, because they worked really hard. We’ll keep moving forward from where we are.”

Facts and figures.

Superpole.

Air temperature: 23°, track temperature: 36°, humidity: 64%, conditions: dry.

* New all-time lap record

Race 1.

Air temperature: 26°, track temperature: 42°, humidity: 53%, conditions: dry, laps: 23.

Fastest race lap: Nicolò Bulega, lap 5, 1:25.491 (new record)

Superpole Race.

Air temperature: 23°, track temperature: 35°, humidity: 56%, conditions: dry, laps: 10.

Fastest race lap: Sam Lowes, lap 3, 1:25.124 (new record)

Race 2.

Air temperature: 25°, track temperature: 39°, humidity: 37%, conditions: dry, laps: 23.

Fastest race lap: Nicolò Bulega, lap 5, 1:25.249

Current riders’ classification (R08/12, after 24 of 36 races).

Current manufacturers’ classification (R08/12, after 24 of 36 races).

Michael Le Pard

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