Second crash on final lap ends Ducati rider’s WorldSBK race

The first day of the FIM World Superbike Championship Aragón round had the Ducati riders as protagonists. In WorldSBK, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) took his first win of the season, and in WorldSSP, Nicolò Bulega (Aruba Racing WorldSSP Team) seems to be uncatchable at this point, further increasing his championship lead.

However, in spite of the all-Italian wins, attention is all on the two-way battle between Bautista and Razgatlioğlu for the championship title. On this first race day of the weekend, the Spaniard took home zero points whereas, thanks to his second place in Race 1, the Turkish Yamaha rider reduced the gap, now just 37 points behind the Ducati rider to reopen the championship.

In WorldSSP300, Dutchman Loris Veneman (MTM Kawasaki) took his first victory of the season after an amazing comeback ride where he recovered 15 positions. 

New track records and standard tyres as protagonists

“In the past few days we haven’t ever seen excessively high track temperatures. We stayed well below 40°C. Additionally, between yesterday and today, there was a good evolution of the asphalt as the track gradually rubberised. These factors, along with the performance of the tyres, undoubtedly contributed to new records being set in both Superbike and Supersport. On the other hand, with these temperatures, we saw that the new soft specification for the front was not particularly popular with the riders, but this is the first race we’ve brought it to, so before expressing an opinion, it’s important to see it in action in other conditions that may be more favourable to it as well. In qualifying, the SCQ C0004 performed respectably, allowing Rea to break the track record and we can say the same about the SCX in Supersport. As always, where the SCQ is concerned, it will be interesting to see who will try to use it tomorrow in the Superpole Race. At the moment no long stints have been done on this solution, so it will be quite a gamble.”

• Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) takes his second pole of the season after the one earned in Donington. With a time of 1’47.973, the rider from Northern Ireland also sets the new track record breaking the previous one by three tenths of a second. Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was just under 4 tenths behind him, and Toprak Razgatlioğlu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) earned the third spot on the starting grid. Asphalt temperature during the session was around 25°C. All the riders used the SCQ development tyre in C0004 specification at the rear, whereas for the front, almost everyone went with the standard SC1.
• In Race 1, held with asphalt temps at around 35°C, all the riders used the standard SC1 at the front. As for the rear, most of the riders opted for the standard SCX, but there were those, like Jonathan Rea, who decided to gamble on the SCX B0800 development solution. After Bautista’s crash on the sixth lap, the race turned into a three-way battle between Razgatlioğlu, Rea, and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). Coming out on top was the latter who, on the 15th of the 18 race laps, managed to move into the lead to finish first. Second place went to Razgatlioğlu and Rea was third, whereas Bautista was forced to retire due to a second crash on the final lap.

• The Supersport qualifying, red-flagged 13 minutes from the end, started at 10:25 A.M. local with an asphalt temperature of 22°C, which had risen to 24 by the end of the session. It was the eighth pole position of the season for Nicolò Bulega (Aruba Racing WorldSSP Team) who also set the new track record with a time of 1’52.306, breaking the one set by Lorenzo Baldassarri in 2022 by almost half a second. The front row was all-Ducati with Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team) in second place and Federico Caricasulo (Althea Racing Team) starting from the third spot. At the rear, all the riders used the standard SCX, whereas there were various choices for the front. Looking at the top three finishers, Bulega and Caricasulo went with the new SC1 B1333 development tyre, whereas Baldassarri opted for the standard SC1.
• In Race 1, for the rear, the riders unanimously chose to start with the standard SCX, the softest of all the solutions available to them. At the front, on the other hand, most of the riders opted for the SC1 development tyre in B1333 specification, including race winner, Bulega, who started well from pole position and led the race all by himself, taking his twelfth victory of the season. Second place went to Marcel Schrötter (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), with Montella managing to finish on the bottom step of the podium.