Results of WorldSSP and WorldSSP300 Nevers Magny-Cours France Races

Toprak Razgatlioğlu (Yamaha) and Álvaro Bautista (Ducati) divided the spoils of the Pirelli French round, the ninth round of the FIM World Superbike Championship season which was raced in Nevers Magny-Cours, France. After his Race 1 victory, the Yamaha rider also took the Superpole Race, but in Race 2 he was unable to maintain the pace of the Ducati rider who, taking the win, remains solidly in the championship lead with an advantage of 57 points over the Turkish rider.

Nicolò Bulega (Ducati) has an increasingly strong hold on the WorldSSP lead. Winning Race 2 as well gives him a brilliant double win (his fourth this year) and takes him to 11 victories and 358 championship points, a full 60 ahead of his nearest rival, Stefano Manzi (Yamaha).

It was a picture perfect weekend for Jeffrey Buis (MTM Kawasaki) in WorldSSP300. The Dutchman leaves Magny-Cours with a fantastic double win and, what’s more, as championship leader with 149 points and a 5-point advantage over Perez Gonzalez.

Satisfaction for Pirelli in the performance of the tyres, mostly standard, which had to reckon with much higher temperatures than in past races on this track.

Grip, stability, and consistent performance despite the high temperatures

“First of all, I can say that we are satisfied with the performance of our tyres in this round. Throughout the entire weekend, the temperatures in Magny-Cours were unusually extremely high. The races were held on around 50°C asphalt. In these conditions, grip generally drops, to the detriment of stability, and there is more wear. Instead, the tyres demonstrated great versatility and adaptability, managing to ensure extremely good grip and, more importantly, outstanding stability on the front axle, all without showing signs of particular wear at the end of the race. In Superbike, the super soft standard SCX rear was the star of the long races, whereas the extra soft SCQ development tyre played its role respectably in the Superpole Race, where it was used by all the riders, even allowing Bautista to set the new race lap record. In Supersport, we are satisfied with the performance of the new SC1 front solution in B1333 specification. It is true that the standard SC1 was the most used over the weekend, but over the course of the day today, four of the first five riders to finish the race chose the new solution and, compared with Race 2 of last year, race times were about half a second faster per lap – an important result, especially if we consider the 15°C hotter asphalt than in 2022. Congratulations to all the winners of this hot round!”

• In the Superpole Race, all the riders chose to start with the extra soft SCQ C0004 development solution at the rear, the same one used in qualifying. For the front, the solutions already used in Race 1 were basically confirmed, with a clear preference for the standard SC1. Only four riders (Lecuona, Soomer, Ray and Konig) used the SC0 front. The race was substantially decided on the fifth lap due to contact between teammates Álvaro Bautista and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) which knocked the latter out of the race, who had been battling for the lead up to that point. Benefiting from this was Toprak Razgatlioğlu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) who took a solid lead and managed to hold onto it undisturbed all the way to the chequered flag. Behind him, second across the line, was Bautista, with Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) completing the podium.
• In Race 2 the standard SCX remained the most popular choice among the riders for the rear. Similarly, the standard SC1 confirmed its status as the reference option for the front. The race was red-flagged on the fifth lap due to an incident on turn 5, involving unlucky protagonists Dominique Aegerter (Yamaha) and Scott Redding (BMW). At the restart, there were 17 laps left to race and Lecuona (Honda) also switched to the SC1 front tyre. Bautista started strong straight away, pulling the pin and winning the race after a solitary run. It was a battle between Razgatlioğlu and Rea for the other podium spots. Coming out on top was Razgatlioğlu, thereby managing to contain the gap behind Bautista in the overall standings.

Giorgio Barbier (Pirelli) & Alvaro Bautista (Ducati)

• In Race 2, many of the riders confirmed their tyre choices from Race 1: at the rear, they all started with the standard SCX, whereas at the front, most of them went once again with the standard SC1 in the standard 120/70 size. However, compared with the race yesterday, there were more riders who chose the new SC1 development solution in B1333 specification. Among these, in addition to the race winner Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team), who had already used it in Race 1, were also three riders (Manzi, Schroetter and Tuuli) who finished in the top five.
• Of the riders who used the standard SC1 front tyre, the highest in the standings was Frenchman Valentin Debise (GMT94 Yamaha) who snatched the second step of the podium today from Stefano Manzi (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha), relegating him to third.