During the Superpole of the fifth act of the World Championship World SBK Superbike at Donington, the Turkish champion Toprak Razgatlioglu demolishes the track record and inflicts a new lesson on his opponents. Nicolo Bulega very fast but it’s not enough…
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But how Toprak Razgatlioglu can he be this fast on the BMW Superbike? This is the question that arises in the world championship paddock. The performance with which he took pole position during the fifth round of the championship is incredible: 1'24″629, one second less than the best time of the weekend a year ago! The boost that the Turk has given to the Germans is impressive, as are the gaps he is opening up with his rivals. This is the 15th qualifying achievement of his career, the third of the year after Barcelona and Misano. Here, BMW had already started on pole in 2019 with Tom Sykes, but it had been a lonely flash in a bad season. This time, it was a triumphant march: on the second attempt, Toprak allowed himself to capture the entire peloton, pulling with him Scott Redding to the front row with the 3rd time.
Bulega in great shape
Ducati is now clinging to the formidable rookie. For his first effort in the top category at Donington, Nicolo Bulega clocked a 1'25"502, which would be an incredible performance if it weren't for Toprak. Instead, the world champion, Alvaro Bautista, sank to eleventh place, 1'210 from the reference but also far behind Nicolò, a frankly unrealistic seven tenths before the start of the world championship. Remember that the Spaniard is responsible for five kilos of ballast. Bautista also lost out to a rising Danilo Petrucci, who rode his Barni Ducati solo to fourth place. His best lap was, however, canceled due to the yellow flag displayed for the fall (the second of the weekend) ofAlex Lowes. If bad luck is present, Danilo will not miss his meeting: he will start on the fifth row, from thirteenth place.
Iannone, what's going on?
Jonathan Rhea, who had started at the front during the last three editions, this time finds himself in eighth position, on a third row as gray as the sky of the East Midlands. But the most negative surprise comes fromAndrea Iannone, who did not complete his lap and found himself in nineteenth place. The pilot who delighted us when he returned after four years in Australia seems to have evaporated: what happened?
It's time to get down to business
The Superbike timetable at Donington is one hour later than usual: the start of race 1 will be at 15 p.m. 23 laps are to be covered, for a total of 93 kilometers of racing. Pirelli has not brought anything new, the tire allocation includes SC0 (medium) and SCX (soft). For Sunday's Superpole race, the SCQ, the "extended" qualifying tire, will also be used. For the front, SC1 (medium) and SC2 (hard) tires are available: the latter solution was only used by Toprak in Misano.
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Paul Gozzi
