WSB Donington: Alvaro Bautista claims UK double as Danilo Petrucci seals maiden podium

Alvaro Bautista’s stranglehold on the World Superbike Championship continued at Donington Park as he claimed Ducati’s first victories at the circuit since 2011.

Victory in Saturday’s opening race was Bautista’s 15^th of the 2023 season and his 11^th consecutive visit to the top step of the podium.

Saturday’s victory wasn’t easy; Bautista swapped positions with Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea multiple times in the opening 10 laps, before the Spaniard made his race winning move on the exit of Coppice.

Bautista quickly pulled away by breaking the lap record twice, eventually crossing the line 3.718s clear of Toprak, whilst Rea completed the top three to celebrate his 250^th WSB podium; the first-ever rider to do so.

Razgatlioglu ended Bautista’s winning streak in the sprint race, stalking Rea for its entirety before taking the lead on the penultimate lap. Bautista also passed Rea at turn nine and said a new lap record of 1:25.896.

It’s Toprak’s second sprint victory of 2023 and he remains the only rider to have beaten Bautista this season. Rea’s podium was Kawasaki’s 530^th in WSB.

Bautista responded in the final, shortened race at Donington. The initial race was red flagged following an incident at Coppice involving Tom Sykes, Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Loris Baz (see injury updates from Donington below), and was restarted as a 22-lap race.

Once again, Bautista was made to work hard for his victory by Razgatlioglu and Rea. Eventually it came down to Bautista and Toprak, with the pair exchanging positions multiple times. Bautista made the final move at turn one on lap 14.

Bautista now has 16 victories in 2023, one shy of the all-time season record of 17, and has an astonishing win rate of 53% as a Ducati rider (48 wins from 90 races). He also has 75 podiums, the same as Colin Edwards and Marco Melandri.

Leaving Donington, Bautista has a championship lead of 93 points over Razgatlioglu, whilst Rea remains fourth overall, a further 101 points behind the Yamaha man.

Podium for Petrucci

Danilo Petrucci was rewarded for a strong weekend at Donington with his maiden podium in the final race – adding yet another achievement to a CV which includes two MotoGP race wins, MotoAmerica Superbike victories and a stage win at the Dakar Rally.

The Italian finished fourth in race one after securing his first-ever WSB front row in qualifying, before coming home fifth in the sprint race.

Petrucci earnt his maiden podium by chasing down and getting the better of Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes and Rea, sparking emotional scenes in parc ferme. It’s the Barni Racing team’s first podium in five years.

“Today, I smelt the podium and I said, ‘I need to try’,” Petrucci told WorldSBK. “It was good because I passed Gerloff, Loka and Lowes, I said ‘no, Jonny again for the podium… in England, a six-time World Champion and 250 podiums… how can I do it!?’.

“I immediately found a way and I passed him. I had a really good pace. We made a small modification of the setup but not major things. The confidence is growing.”

Best of the rest

Elsewhere, Scott Redding’s season received a much-needed boost in the final race of the weekend with a fourth place, whilst Andrea Locatelli remains third overall after securing a podium and two further top five results.

Lowes finished sixth in all three races, whilst Axel Bassani secured a weekend-best result of seventh in each of the feature races. Garret Gerloff secured two top 10s onboard the Bonovo Action BMW M1000 RR.

It was a tough weekend for Honda, with Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge failing to make it inside the top 10 in all three races. Both riders suffered one DNF, with Vierge claiming the team’s best result (11^th) in race one.

Injury updates

Following the crash at Coppice in race three, Sykes was diagnosed with 10 fractured rear ribs, including three in two places, plus thoracic and left ankle injuries.

Rinaldi was diagnosed with a mild concussion and right ankle injury, whilst Baz escaped any injuries following the crash. The Frenchman did not make it back to the grid for the restart.  

“It has been a really unlucky weekend where something important always happened in the early laps,” Rinaldi said. “Today’s. accident was really bad. I only remember finding myself on the ground with a lot of pain in my ankle.

“Fortunately, the initial analysis ruled out fractures. I wish a speedy recovery to Sykes, who was at the medical centre with me.

Baz added: “I want to send my best wishes to Tom and Michael. I hope they are ok. It was so scary! I’m just glad that I didn’t hit Tom. There was just nothing I could have done. The consequence could have been much worse.”