WSBK Superbike Assen Race 2: Toprak & Rea on the ground and Bautista takes advantage of the disaster.

De Paolo Gozzi / Corsedimoto.com

It had to happen: Toprak Razgatlioğlu and Jonathan Rea self-eliminated, Álvaro Bautista won hands down. Locatelli and Lecuona also on the podium.

Come to think of it, it was inevitable: Soil Razgatlioğlu et Jonathan Rhea collided in race 2 at Assen, and both ended up on the ground. A limping mess which also threatened to involve Alvaro Bautista and completely upset a decapitated race in the third round. Jonathan Rhea came back and pressed hard, but Soil Razgatlioğlu resisted entering the first corner, but went wide. The Cannibal spotted the spot, dove inside and when the Yamaha got back on course, the fall was inevitable. The pilots got up safely, without a glance at each other. Commissioners reviewed the incident and found no irregularities.

Álvaro Bautista on velvet
At that moment, the way was clear for Ducati, and Alvaro Bautista enjoyed his walk in the meadows of Drenthe. For his third victory in 2022 (the nineteenth of his career), the Spaniard took advantage of the errors of his rivals. There is still a long way to go, but the Madrilenian has made a good start. He is very fast and takes the necessary risks: that's the way to do it. If Jonathan Rhea had remained standing, how would that have happened? Well, given the aggressiveness with which he came up from fifth place at the start, we can assume that the Dutchman's trio would have been served. But “ifs” and “buts” don’t win races. The Cannibal is now 18 points behind Alvaro Bautista.
Soil Razgatlioğlu, who in six races did no better than third and sank 45 points from the lead.

Jonathan Rea also touched by Garrett Gerloff
This year's Superbike is a great spectacle, but the boys will have to calm down: in the frenetic Superpole-style start, Jonathan Rhea found himself in fifth position, and as he planned to move back up, he was hit by Garrett gerloff. The Texan almost knocked the winner of the two previous races off his bike and forced him to widen his trajectory, before relaunching in the race. For Garrett gerloff, it was over, to the great despair of Yamaha GRT who had already lost Kohta Nozane at the first turn, who fractured the fifth metatarsal of his right foot in the fall.

Locatelli tames Lecuona
The abandonment of the big names in the world championship gave even more space to new recruits. Andrea Locatelli took a second place in his bag, his best result in the championship, after having tamed a Iker Lecuona aggressive, who in the excitement of the accident between Toprak and Rea also found himself briefly in control of the race. Axel Bassani also performed well, having lost a direct confrontation with Scott Redding after a three-second penalty for exceeding track limits. The Briton, taking advantage of the circumstances, brought the BMW to an acceptable position for the first time: fifth, although 15 seconds behind Bautista.

Next stop: Estoril
The Superbike World Championship now stops for a month, before returning to the track from May 20 to 22 in Estoril, Portugal. In the meantime, there will be weeks to reflect on the Assen incident. Between Toprak and Jonathan, the friendship of the past risks becoming only a distant memory.

Read the original article on Corsedimoto.com

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com