MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

Updated below. Toprak Razgatlioglu's replacement Markus Reiterberger was sent to the back of the grid and handed a double long lap penalty for dragging a new engine out of BMW's reserve, falling on his sword for Toprak Razgatlioglu and ending the fears of the German marque running out of engine allocation. 24ºC weather welcomed the riders to the first ever World Superbike race at the Cremona track. Local police are not used to big events, in spite of a capacity limit at the small facility, and Motomatters has heard that they were inexplicably confiscating water bottles off visitors yesterday.

Nicolo Bulega, a rookie at a new track, and the only challenger to the absent Toprak Razgatlioglu, led into turn one, ahead of Andrea Iannone and Andrea Locatelli, Alex Lowes. Tito Rabat crashed out on the opening lap.

Lap two, Bulega led Iannone and Locatelli as Danilo Petrucci cleared his three grid place penalty, passing Alex Lowes for fourth place before lap two and Locatelli into turn eleven. Andrea Iannone set a fastest lap on lap two of 1'29.397 and carried his momentum to pass Bulega at the start of lap three.

With three Ducatis covered by four tenths of a second in the lead, Petrucci closing the gap to Bulega on lap three, Alex Lowes was over half a second off the trio in fourth place, but he closed up over lap four. Petrucci took second place off Bulega and spent lap five chasing Iannone, finally passing him, driving out of turn seven to take the inside line into turn eight for the lead.

Sam Lowes crashed out at the start of lap six as his twin brother hounded Bulega in fourth place. Petrucci and Iannone lapped around the same pace, a tenth quicker than Bulega in third as Lowes closed up on third place. Over a second off the fight for podium places, Andrea Locatelli had the Hondas of Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona over a half a second off him, all lapping around the same pace.

Andrea Iannone, losing grip on the Pirelli development tyre, crashed out of second place into turn seven of lap nine, tucking the front and ending his race. Responding, Bulega increased his pace and closed the gap on Petrucci and on lap ten, the leading trio of Petrucci, Bulega and Lowes  held the same pace until Alex Lowes crashed out of third place, crashing into turn seven on the same tyre as Iannone.

In the fight for the last step of the podium, Locatelli gifted third place four seconds off Bulega, six riders were all within striking distance, Locatelli leading Lecuona, Vierge, Axel Bassani, Alvaro Bautista and Michael van der Mark. Lecuona took third place from Locatelli before the start of lap thirteen of twenty three. Alvaro Bautista passed Bassani then Vierge on lap thirteen and set his sights on Locatelli and Lecuona.

At the front, Petrucci and Bulega maintained their pace with only Bautista matching them as he took fourth place from Locatelli with Lecuona three quarters a second ahead. Petrucci turned upon his pace over two laps to start lap sixteen a second clear of Bulega as the fight for the last step of the podium went on five seconds behind him. Bautista was the fastest man on track as he reeled in Lecuona and the last podium spot, passing him into turn eleven on lap sixteen. Bautista was lapping half a second quicker than Bulega four and a half seconds ahead with only six laps remaining.

Petrucci and Bautista lapped at similar pace, with Bulega in between them. The track side cameras stopped showing images and a red flag came out, never a good sign, but it was the technical issues brought out the flag as opposed to an accident.

Danillo Petrucci took his first win in World Superbike, making himself the first rider to win races in MotoGP, MotoAmerica and World Superbike along with a Dakar stage win, a truly varied record.

The red flag cut Bautista's charge short, and Bulega taking second place under four seconds ahead of him cemented the top three as an all-Ducati podium, and the podium celebration was very red, very Italian and very loud.

Toprtak Razgatlioglu remains at the head of the championship with Nicolo Bulega closing up to thirty five points off the lead and Alvaro Baitusta a further seventy one points back. In Parc Fermé, Bautista's adrenaline wore off and he started to feel the pain in his ribs, but he still believed he could catch Bulega in the cut laps.  

Update: The red flag was for more than just the track cameras going out. The comms to the marshals' posts failed and there was no power to the LED light boards, both of which are a safety issue. 

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