With standard Pirelli tyres, the Turkish rider breaks the Bautista-Ducati domination, taking Yamaha to victory in both WorldSBK races; double win for the manufacturer from Iwata in WorldSSP as well with Manzi and in WorldSSP300 with Vannucci
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For the second day of races in the Imola round of the FIM World Superbike Championship, the Yamaha riders were the stars of the show: 2021 World Champion Toprak Razgatlioğlu won both the Superpole Race in the morning and Race 2 in the afternoon, whereas in WorldSSP, holding the Japanese brand’s colours high was Stefano Manzi, winning both races and closing the points gap behind championship leader Nicolò Bulega. In WorldSSP300 Race 2, it was victory once again for Matteo Vannucci (AG Motorsport Italia Yamaha) who, like in Race 1, managed to gain the upper hand against Dirk Geiger (Freudenberg KTM-Paligo Racing), second across the finish line. Completing the rostrum was another Yamaha rider, Humberto Maier (Yamaha MS Racing/AD78 Latin America Team). The indirect protagonist was also the scorching heat, which remained constant throughout the weekend, complicating things for many riders and staff. In such extreme conditions, the Pirelli tyres – both the standard solutions Razgatlioğlu used to dominate in Race 2 and the development tyres like the new SCQ – performed extremely well, demonstrating outstanding consistency over race distance. Searing temperatures but outstanding tyre performance “The Imola weekend was undoubtedly an extremely demanding one physically for the riders due to the high heat that permeated the three days, forcing the promoter to reduce WorldSBK Race 2 by 4 laps to protect the health of the riders. The high temperatures also influenced the conditions of the track which, with peaks of 60°C, became rather slippery, losing a good part of its grip. This is certainly not an easy situation for the tyres either, but I must say that all the solutions used this round performed extremely well, with quite good degradation and wear levels if we consider the extreme operating conditions. Specifically, the new SCQ was chosen by all the riders for the Superpole Race and this is certainly important feedback for us, because it means that we are working in the right direction with respect to a goal that we had set for ourselves at the beginning of the year to increase the mileage of the extra soft so it could always be used in the 10-lap race. Congratulations to Razgatlioğlu and Bassani today who provided fantastic thrills in an extremely heated head-to-head battle in Race 2.”
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