Eighteen laps of MotorLand Aragon with the return of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea. Dominique Aegerter is still absent after a cycling injury, and continues to be replaced by the German Marvin Fritz who will copy BMW's engine replacement tactic from Cremona, unwrapping a fresh engine for Aegerter's return. A pink-clad drumming band in the grandstand added to the noise of the engines in 22ºC weather.
Andrea Iannone took the lead from second place, cutting under Nicolo Bulega as Toprak Razgatlioglu pushed his way to third place before passing Bulega a few turns in to take second. Sam Lowes suffered a crash from seventh place as his Ducati smoked heavily, spewing fluids on his rear tyre before throwing him off, bringing out the red flags. As one lap was not completed, the race would be restarted with a quick start procedure with the same grid as the race start. Sam Lowes would not take part in the seventeen lap restarted race.
Nicolo Bulega broke down on the warm up lap and pulled off the track, missing the race and ending his chance of closing on Razgatlioglu's championship lead.
Andrea Iannone led Danilo Petrucci into turn one with a gap in pole position. Andrea Locatelli used Alvaro Bautista aside to take third place ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu. Down the back straight, Razgatlioglu reeled in Locatelli and took third place before the braking zone. Alex Lowes passed Locatelli before lap two giving Bautista a chance to take revenge on Locatelli.
Once again Razgatlioglu took a place down the back straight, this time taking Petruuci on the brakes. He set a 1'50.085 fastest lap until Axel Bassani in thirteenth place recorded a surprising 1'49.798. Locatelli made a mistake and ended up back in sixteenth place.
On lap four, Iannone continued to be hard to pass, as the pack bunched up behind him, letting Michael van der Mark and Alvaro Bautista close up. Garrett Gerloff also closed tip in seventh place to join the group setting a 1'49.510 fastest lap on his way.
Lowes and Petrucci swapped back and forth, with Bautista following Petrucci past Lowes as Petrucci climbed back to third place. Razgatlioglu passed Iannone on the brakes into turn sixteen at the end of the straight, but Iannone switched back as Razgatlioglu couldn't hold the inside line. Bautista took advantage of the long straight to pass Petrucci for third place behind Iannone and Razgatlioglu.
Lap seven, Petrucci pushed past Bautista into turn one and Lowes saw Bautista being pushed wide and snuck under to take fourth place from him. Petrucci passed Razgatlioglu into turn one and carried his momentum to Iannone, pushing Iannone aside for the lead into turn four.
At half race distance, the leading eleven riders were all within a few tenths of each other, with Bautista going wide but recovering in sixth place. Garrett Gerloff took third place from Toprak Razgatlioglu and Bautista took fifth back off Alex Lowes as Iannone took the lead back before losing it in turn one of lap ten as Gerloff set a 1'49.264 fastest lap. Petrucci went wide and lost second place to Gerloff and then third to Razgatlioglu. Lowes smelled blood and also took a place off Petrucci who was still trying to get back on line.
Lap eleven, Iannone led Gerloff and Razgatlioglu with Bautista over half a second off the podium and Petrucci over half a second further back, ahead of Lowes once more. Lap twelve, Danilo Petrucci set a fastest lap of 1'49.180 in fifth place behind Bautista who was almost a second off the podium fight that was covered by just two tenths of a second.
Lap thirteen, Iannone, Gerloff and Razgatlioglu were covered by under two tenths of a second and Razgatlioglu passed Gerloff into turn one on the brakes and lined up Iannone on the back straight as Bautista joined the leading trio. Iannone held off Razgatlioglu into turn sixteen and started lap fourteen of seventeen in the lead. Alvaro Bautista set a fastest lap of 1'49.152, three tenths off Gerloff. Once again, Iannone used his corner exit speed to make the BMWs have to spend the back straight closing up, unable to get into a passing position.
Andrea Iannone set a fastest lap of 1'49.094 almost four tenths ahead of Razgatlioglu on lap fourteen. Gerloff wheeled over the line, losing his grip on Razgatlioglu and letting Bautista close up on him. Iannone still had tyre left under him and he started to pull away at the lead, starting the last lap over a second clear of Razgatlioglu, Gerloff and Bautista. Bautista took third place on the run to turn one of the last lap, but Gerloff forced a pass back into turn four as Iannone recorded another fastest lap, a 1'49.040 in the lead. The fight between Gerloff and Bautista gave Razgatlioglu room to breathe, and as Gerloff closed on Razgatliolgu, he ran out of lap to finish in third place.
Andrea Iannone won his first World Superbike race ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Garrett Gerloff with Alvaro Bautista missing out on a podium by under a tenth of a second. A second further back, Danilo Petrucci took a lonely fifth place, two seconds clear of Iker Lecuona and Alex Lowes.
Iannone's team loudly celebrated the Italian's first race win since the 2016 MotoGP, but his bike didn't make it back to Parc Fermé as his yellow Ducati ran out of fuel on the cool down lap. The drone chased Iannone's passenger ride through the paddock and he jumped up and down in Parc Fermé after sneaking in through the side entrance. Eight different race winners in 2024 is the highest number in over a decade.
Razgatlioglu thanked Gerloff for seeing him in the last corner, hailing back to that time when he didn't, back in Assen, 2021, while Iannone would not stop grinning, dancing, clapping and generally having fun on the way to the podium until he was silenced by tears and his Italian national anthem.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Gap |
1 | 29 | A. IANNONE | Ducati Panigale V4R | |
2 | 54 | T. RAZGATLIOGLU | BMW M 1000 RR | 0.845 |
3 | 31 | G. GERLOFF | BMW M 1000 RR | 1.124 |
4 | 1 | A. BAUTISTA | Ducati Panigale V4R | 1.190 |
5 | 9 | D. PETRUCCI | Ducati Panigale V4R | 2.528 |
6 | 7 | I. LECUONA | Honda CBR1000 RR-R | 4.758 |
7 | 22 | A. LOWES | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 5.352 |
8 | 97 | X. VIERGE | Honda CBR1000 RR-R | 6.477 |
9 | 60 | M. VAN DER MARK | BMW M 1000 RR | 8.749 |
10 | 55 | A. LOCATELLI | Yamaha YZF R1 | 8.926 |
11 | 45 | S. REDDING | BMW M 1000 RR | 9.003 |
12 | 47 | A. BASSANI | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 10.660 |
13 | 21 | M. RINALDI | Ducati Panigale V4R | 11.976 |
14 | 65 | J. REA | Yamaha YZF R1 | 14.901 |
15 | 28 | B. RAY | Yamaha YZF R1 | 16.291 |
16 | 87 | R. GARDNER | Yamaha YZF R1 | 21.047 |
17 | 5 | P. OETTL | Yamaha YZF R1 | 30.353 |
18 | 95 | T. MACKENZIE | Honda CBR1000 RR-R | 31.777 |
RET | 53 | T. RABAT | Kawasaki ZX-10RR | 10 |
RET | 17 | M. FRITZ | Yamaha YZF R1 | 12 Laps |
RET | 14 | S. LOWES | Ducati Panigale V4R | |
RET | 11 | N. BULEGA | Ducati Panigale V4R |
Comments
MotoGP eat your heart out
What a race !
Battles galore, SBK as it should be.
Impressive Gerlof, tough as nails Toprak and on top a ‘surgical’ Iannone.
In reply to MotoGP eat your heart out by Matonge
Brilliant
Iannone sure has managed his fuel consumption with surgical precision! (Unlike some other consumption a while ago, I might add)
Still shaking my head thinking back to when he missed winter testing with Aprilia because of some reconstruction work on his face, after which he couldn't wear his helmet or couldn't see or something. He sure could have achieved so much more, which he basically admitted in the interviews after the race. Still, we can now enjoy his remarkable resurrection and wonderful riding. What a story. A big bonus to the World Superbike Championship.
In reply to Brilliant by Powervalve58
Yeah the surgical was a…
Yeah the surgical was a referal to the quite weird face he has now. Especially when trying to smile. Hope he got his money back…
Celebrate!
Passing and overtaking yipee!
Congratulations to Andrea Iannone.
Welcome back Toprak and the Maniac.
Seems like Aragon is not a Yamaha track.
BMW are using that Suzuki data to good effect. They are quick out of corners. Ducati probably won't win the championship this year. Wheel see.
Clearly read the play book…
Clearly read the play book from the other Andrea in the way he managed that race.
That was some great racing! Always happy to see Gerloff show his potential.
As for Toprak, pretty amazing.