What to expect as the titanic WorldSBK title fight heads to Most
One point shy of 80 behind Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista heading into race one at Donington Park, Razgatlioglu’s deficit to the current WorldSBK leader has been nearly halved.
After winning race one in utterly dominant fashion, Razgatlioglu continued that trend during the Superpole and race two, while Bautista and Jonathan Rea fought over P2.
It was the first race weekend of 2022 where Razgatlioglu not only looked fully comfortable with his R1 and therefore able to push to the limit with regularity, but the incredible consistency he showed last year was also back.
At each of the five rounds that have taken place in 2022, Razgatlioglu has been considerably quicker than he was at the same circuits last year, the problem, so has Rea while the performance from Bautista in particular has proved difficult to match for both riders.
Misano and Donington Park were two race weekends in 2021 where the reigning world champion began to mount a serious title challenge, which again appears to be the case this season after winning at both events.
Now in its second year on the WorldSBK calendar, the Autodrom Most was dominated by Razgatlioglu as the Yamaha rider won there twice last season - Scott Redding was the other rider to claim a victory [race two].
Having said that, expect Rea and Bautista to pose a bigger threat than they did at Donington Park.
Braking problems along with high temperatures - conditions the Kawasaki appears not to favour compared to Ducati and Yamaha were an issue, while the British circuit is a known ‘bogey’ track for Ducati.
Although that’s true based on past results, Bautista showed the type of performance from a Ducati rider at Donington that we haven’t seen in a long-time, and with Most likely to present more opportunities to use his Panigale V4 R’s supreme top speed, returning to the winners circle is a very realistic possibility.
Most was not a favourable round for Rea and Kawasaki last season, but with the six-time world champion again at the top of his game, plus the fact he’s been more within the limit while still winning races, a first victory at the Czech circuit is also not out of the question.
With the top three sharing all 15 race wins between them so far this season, expect Most to produce much of the same.
Although experienced with Ducati machinery, this weekend will be Bautista’s first time at Most aboard the Panigale V4 R.
Can BMW be best of the rest again for the second WorldSBK round in succession?
Behind the top three riders/teams, BMW will be looking to confirm their recent upgrade improvements which helped Redding battle at the front in all three races [Donington] - secured a maiden podium with the German manufacturer in the 10-lap Superpole race.
While a new swingarm and set-up adjustments enabled Redding to find more performance relative to previous races, the former Ducati rider appeared to be back to his best which also made a difference.
Should BMW match their level of performance from Donington Park, Redding will be expected to challenge the likes of Andrea Locatelli, Alex Lowes and Michael Rinaldi.
Donington Park was a relatively poor round for Honda who have traditionally been a step ahead of BMW this season, thus bouncing back and competing for the top five will likely be the aim.
