Pole position and three wins: Historic weekend for BMW Motorrad Motorsport and new world championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu at Misano
Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR) from the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team was the dominant man at the fourth round of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK).
With a perfect weekend on his BMW M 1000 RR at Misano (ITA), he achieved BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s historic first hat-trick in WorldSBK.
Starting from pole position, he won all three races of the weekend. In doing so, he impressively fulfilled the goal he had set before the weekend. After these successes, Razgatlioglu leaves Misano as the new world championship leader. His lead over his closest rival is 21 points.
At the four race weekends held so far this season, Razgatlioglu has already achieved six wins and three additional podium finishes with the BMW M 1000 RR. In the manufacturers’ standings, BMW is in second place.
In Superpole qualification on Saturday morning, Razgatlioglu secured his second pole position of the season with a new lap record. In race one in the afternoon, he briefly fell to second place after the start but regained the lead on lap four and rode away to a dominant victory. After 21 laps, Razgatlioglu had a lead of almost 1.8 seconds over his closest competitor. With that victory, he also took the lead in the riders’ championship. In the Superpole race on Sunday morning, Razgatlioglu again briefly fell back at the start, but soon reclaimed the lead and rode to his next victory, further extending his championship lead. The only race left was the second main race on Sunday afternoon. At the start, Razgatlioglu initially fell back to fifth position, but after a few corners, he was back in second place. From then on, he followed his strategy, steadily closing the gap, resuming the lead on lap eight, and extending it to over five seconds at times. Nothing stood in the way of his third victory of the perfect weekend.
Teammate Michael van der Mark (NED) was also fast in Superpole qualification but crashed and had to settle for 16th on the grid. In the first race, he worked his way up to eighth place. In the Superpole race, he struggled a bit after the start, but made up positions and finished in 12th place. In the second main race, van der Mark had to retire early due to a technical problem.
In the Bonovo action BMW Racing Team, Garrett Gerloff (USA) qualified in 13th place. In race one, he finished in 12th position. In the Superpole race, Gerloff made an excellent start, finishing the first lap in seventh place which went unrewarded as shortly after he crashed following contact and retired from the race. In race two, he had a minor crash but was able to continue, finishing in 18th place. Scott Redding (GBR) had bad luck with a yellow flag in the Superpole, starting from 20th place in race one. From there, he worked his way up to 15th place to score a point. In the Superpole race, he climbed up to 14th position. In the second main race, he had a strong comeback, finishing in 12th place.
The fifth round of the WorldSBK 2024 will take place from 12th to 14th July at Donington (GBR).
Marc Bongers, Sporting Director BMW Motorrad Motorsport
“I am speechless. It was an absolutely brilliant weekend. We came here with a bit of hope, but to dominate like this at Ducati’s home round was incredible. After the test we had here beforehand, we knew we were in good shape but now we’ve broken all records: lap record, fastest race lap, pole position, three race wins, and we lead the championship with Toprak. I need to let it sink in first. I’ll probably enjoy a pizza with a glass of wine tonight, and maybe tomorrow I’ll realize what happened this weekend. It’s fantastic for the team, fantastic for the brand. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this huge success. It’s a pity that the other guys couldn’t get the results we had hoped for. We showed good pace from yesterday, Mickey was quite strong with eighth place. Garrett had a lot of bad luck, Mickey today, and Scott in the Superpole. We now need to calmly analyse everything and work on getting them further up the field in the next races. The potential is clearly there, as we have shown. But for now, we’ll enjoy this successful weekend.”
Toprak Razgatlioglu, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 1 / R01: 1 / SP Race: 1 / R02: 1)
“Before the weekend, I said that it’s my target to get three wins this weekend. Finally I did it. Thank you very much to my team because they did an incredible job this weekend. Especially today, we again improved the bike and I felt more relaxed on it. I really enjoyed the final race especially. It wasn’t an easy race for anyone because of the hot conditions. Everyone was sliding more. But we did a really great job. This is team work because I can not win on my own. Everyone really works hard and now we finally took three wins on a weekend. And it looks like this is just the start. Thanks to everybody!”
Michael van der Mark, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 16 / R01: 8 / SP Race: 12 / R02: DNF)
“It has been very unfortunate today. In the Superpole race, I had a good start but in turn one I had to take the run-off slip road. It as alright, I managed to gain some places back. Unfortunately on the first lap, I had a get together with another rider so I came back on track last. I pushed as hard as I could to unfortunately only finish 12th. The goal was to be in the top nine in Superpole. I had to start from 16th again in race two; that wasn’t ideal. Initially after the start I was having issues with the bike, and the problems were getting worse and worse, so I had to retire. It’s a shame because I think that over the entire weekend our results did not show the pace I had. Now we have to get everything together and get ready for Donington.”
Scott Redding, Bonovo action BMW Racing Team (SP: 20 / R01: 15 / SP Race: 14 / R02: 12)
“Today was a little bit better than the rest of the weekend. Warm up was good, we made some changes on the bike that actually helped. In the Superpole race those changes we made felt like we needed to go more in that direction we did for race two. Superpole race was ok, but the lap time was not really there so we made those changes to help me for race two. The biggest problem I faced this weekend was the yellow flag in qualifying which set me in 20th position for the start of the race because the start is like a casino, there are bikes all over the place. Anyway, I was happy with the feeling from the bike in race two, I felt stronger and felt like we are going in the right direction. I hope now, that we can start well in Donington and start working with the bike on that feeling that I’m looking for and then we can make better steps.“
Garrett Gerloff, Bonovo action BMW Racing Team (SP: 13 / R01: 12 / SP Race: DNF / R02: 18)
“This is not the way I wanted to end the weekend and it wasn’t the weekend I wanted to have. I’m just annoyed that today I was on the ground twice. I did the best that I could and my team and I made some big steps with the bike. I’m a bit lost in words about this weekend here at Misano, so I’ll try to focus and just look forward to Donington now, which is a track that I like.”