2024 Magny-Cours WorldSBK Race 1 Result: Cool Heads Triumph In Difficult Conditions

By David Emmett |

Michael van der Mark has taken a convincing and well-deserved victory in extraordinarily difficult conditions at Magny-Cours. The BMW rider kept his head in the chaos around him to cruise home, eight seconds ahead of Alvaro Bautista, and 24 seconds ahead of Danilo Petrucci. 

A dryish track convinced a lot of riders to start the race on grids, gambling that if the rain came, it would not fall too heavily. The one exception Garrett Gerloff opted for intermediate tires, which looked like a gamble which might pay off when the rain started to fall. Alex Lowes had taken an early lead, avoiding the chaos behind which saw Nicolo Bulega's rear wheel clipped by Jonathan Rea, taking out any chance of Bulega closing the gap to championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu, ruled out after a massive crash on Friday.

The rain forced the grid into the pits, handing Gerloff a lead over over 43 seconds, but the rain kept getting heavier and heavier, and it was soon evident Gerloff's intermediates would not be sufficient to deal with the conditions. He was 10 seconds slower than the riders who had swapped to wets, and with two thirds of the race left to go, he crashed, and was forced to go back to the pits to swap to wets. Gerloff did not observe the mandatory 45-second tire swap time, and was handed a penalty of 1 minute at the end of the race. 

The departure of Gerloff left Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark in the lead, the two swapping places and looking evenly matched. But Lowes tried to push on after he passed Van der Mark, and crashed at Turn 7. He rejoined and was making progress through the field, with a possible podium in sight, but the fairing he damaged in the crash was flapping around too much, which meant he was shown the technical flag and forced to withdraw. 

That left Michael van der Mark with a comfortable lead, and just one job: stay on board and don't make a mistake. Van der Mark kept his head cool and cruised home comfortably. Alvaro Bautista could not match Van der Mark's pace but was comfortably the best of the rest, while Danilo Petrucci held on to finish third, ahead of Scott Redding, another rider who had crashed early on.

Results:

Pos No. Rider Bike Gap
1 60 M. VAN DER MARK BMW M 1000 RR  
2 1 A. BAUTISTA Ducati Panigale V4R 8.288
3 9 D. PETRUCCI Ducati Panigale V4R 24.285
4 45 S. REDDING BMW M 1000 RR 34.037
5 29 A. IANNONE Ducati Panigale V4R 42.108
6 7 I. LECUONA Honda CBR1000 RR-R 50.799
7P 97 X. VIERGE Honda CBR1000 RR-R 1.562
8 55 A. LOCATELLI Yamaha YZF R1 0.008
9 21 M. RINALDI Ducati Panigale V4R 1'11.573
10 52 A. DELBIANCO Yamaha YZF R1 1'18.169
11 47 A. BASSANI Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1'25.369
12 P 31 G. GERLOFF BMW M 1000 RR 2'06.163
RET 14 S. LOWES Ducati Panigale V4R 4 Laps
RET 87 R. GARDNER Yamaha YZF R1 5 Laps
RET 22 A. LOWES Kawasaki ZX-10RR 7 Laps
RET 28 B. RAY Yamaha YZF R1 9 Laps
RET 95 T. MACKENZIE Honda CBR1000 RR-R 11 Laps
RET 5 P. OETTL Yamaha YZF R1 12 Laps
RET 53 T. RABAT Kawasaki ZX-10RR 18 Laps
RET 75 I. LOPES Honda CBR1000 RR-R 20 Laps
RET 65 J. REA Yamaha YZF R1  
RET 11 N. BULEGA Ducati Panigale V4R  
2024
8
World Superbikes
Magny-Cours, France
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Comments

I was shocked by the accident and amazed that Toprak was able to walk away with minor assistance and that he was able to remove his helmet by himself. But what is still bugging me is that there was no discussion about laying down more gravel or putting a section of airfence next to the barrier in case someone else went down there. Similar geometry to the old lead up to Turn 3 at the Red Bull Ring.