2023 Assen World Superbike Race Two Result: Wind And Attrition

By Jared Earle | Sun, 23/04/2023 - 12:48

World Superbike's final windy race of the weekend opened to fifty four and a half thousand fans listening to a man playing a guitar solo version of the Dutch national anthem at the front of the grid as Kawasaki struggled to get Alex Lowes's bike ready for the start after a mechanical issue on the sighting lap.

Alvaro Bautista led Toprak Razgatlioglu into turn one, Razgatlioglu nipping under Jonathan Rea into the corner on the brakes. Alex Lowes climbed to seventeenth fafter starting g in twenty fifth place.

Axel Bassani, Andrea Locatelli and Dominique Aegerter made up the second group behind the usual trio at the front, with Scott Redding in seventh place. Rea looked for a way past Razgatlioglu as Bautista started to stretch out a lead, setting a 1'34.558 on lap two.

Michael van der Mark crashed out at the chicane, a nasty high-altitude high side, and was attended to as he lay on the ground. He was stretchered off the track as Xavi Vierge crashed out into turn one.

Razgatlioglu took the lead from Bautista but Bautista fought back, pushing Razgatlioglu wide enough for Rea to sneak through into second. On lap four, Rea made the same pass as Razgatlioglu but held it until turn eleven and twelve where Bautista threaded the needle through the chicane to pass Rea back. Razgatlioglu then took second off Rea on the brakes in to turn one to start lap five in second place. Axel Bassani kept pace with the leaders and sat in Rea's wake with Andrea Locatelli behind him.

Razgatlioglu closed right up to Bautista but at turn nine, Rea crashed out, his bike spewing out fuel, and Rea kicked the gravel as he left the track. Razgatlioglu set a 1'34.304 holding on to Bautista in the lead as the pair broke free of Bassani and Locatelli, putting almost two seconds of fresh air between the leaders and third place.

Behind the Locatelli v Bassani fight, Dominique Aegerter caught up as Locatelli took control.

Lap eight, Alvaro Bautista finally broke Toprak Razgatlioglu, setting a fastest lap of 1'34.133, seven tenths quicker than Razgatliolgu, a lead that was over a second and a half a lap later. Lap ten and Loris Baz crashed out at turn nine, walking off the track as if he weren't carrying an injury.

At half race distance, Alvaro Bautista led Toprak Razgatlioglu by over two seconds with Andrea Locatelli and Axel Bassani over two and a half seconds further back. Dominique Aegerter and Scott Redding held lonely fifth and sixth places, but Remy Gardner closed up to Redding as Lecuona crashed out trying to match Gardner. Alex Lowes was in ninth place, over a second behind Danilo Petrucci. Remy Gardner eventually found a way past Redding as Petrucci closed on lap fourteen.

Michael van der Mark waved to the crowd from his stretcher to much applause, putting a brave face on it.

Bautista led Razgatlioglu by four seconds with four laps to go and Razgatlioglu had over three seconds to Locatelli and Bassani in third and fourth as the top two places were settled and third place was up for grabs. A lap later, Bassani dropped off the back of Locatelli but was still over a second clear of Dominique Aegerter. Aegerter's pace, the quickest on the track, was better than Bassani's and with two laps to go, he closed the gap to seven tenths of a second, just over their difference in lap times, giving Aegerter a sniff of fourth place.

With one lap remaining, and the podium places settled, Dominique Aegerter kept the excitement alive by catching Axel Bassani as Danilo Petrucci caught and challenged Scott Redding for the fight over seventh place.

Alvaro Bautista took his career fortieth victory, Ducati's four hundredth, with Toprak Razgatlioglu and Andrea Locatelli comfortably filling the remaining podium spots as Axel Bassani defended fourth place from Dominique Aegerter and Scott Redding, behind sixth placed Remy Gardner, held off Danilo Petrucci by under a tenth of a second to claim seventh. Six riders didn't finish.

Alvaro Bautista extended his championship lead by fifty six points over Toprak Razgatlioglu with Andrea Locatelli just fourteen points behind. With Jonathan Rea's DNF, Axel Bassani was able to take fourth place off the six-time world champion, twenty seven points behind Locatelli.

Results:

Pos No. Rider Bike Gap
1 1 A. BAUTISTA Ducati Panigale V4R  
2 54 T. RAZGATLIOGLU Yamaha YZF R1 3.915
3 55 A. LOCATELLI Yamaha YZF R1 3.501
4 77 D. AEGERTER Yamaha YZF R1 9.445
5P 47 A. BASSANI Ducati Panigale V4R 9.500
6 87 R. GARDNER Yamaha YZF R1 12.279
7 45 S. REDDING BMW M1000 RR 13.457
8 9 D. PETRUCCI Ducati Panigale V4R 13.532
9 22 A. LOWES Kawasaki ZX-10RR 16.890
10 21 M. RINALDI Ducati Panigale V4R 3.414
11 5 P. OETTL Ducati Panigale V4R 21.645
12 31 G. GERLOFF BMW M1000 RR 22.038
13 34 L. BALDASSARRI Yamaha YZF R1 37.985
14 35 H. SYAHRIN Honda CBR1000 RR-R 42.954
15 66 T. SYKES Kawasaki ZX-10RR 44.662
16 52 O. KONIG Kawasaki ZX-10RR 54.512
17 51 E. GRANADO Honda CBR1000 RR-R 55.140
18 32 I. VINALES Kawasaki ZX-10RR 1'07.639
19 16 G. RUIU BMW M1000 RR 1'07.659
RET 7 I. LECUONA Honda CBR1000 RR-R 9 Laps
RET 76 L. BAZ BMW M1000 RR 8
RET 65 J. REA Kawasaki ZX-10RR 16 Laps
RET 97 X. VIERGE Honda CBR1000 RR-R 19 Laps
RET 28 B. RAY Yamaha YZF R1 1
RET 60 M. VAN DER MARK BMW M1000 RR 20 Laps
2023
3
World Superbikes
Assen, The Netherlands
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Comments

Ok. I’ve got no argument with this race direction decision which which begs me to raise the obvious question! He did Rossi get away with it not once, but twice in MotoGP? I’ll admit to a sour grape or two on my part but still doesn’t exonerate the hypocrisy of this outcome when you take into account the precedents that have been set.

 

Very nasty highside indeed. While still tumbling, it was already painfully visible that his left leg was broken... Horrible, even more so after what he's been through last year. BMW's - like Hondas - seem to have a tendency to hurt their riders well above average (of course his first leg injury last year was from a cycling accident, but the second one was a crash at Estoril, and there were more peculiar crashes). I wonder if the BMW electronics are a factor in this, they seem to have some gremlins. Several BMW's at the Le Mans 24 hours were having electronic issues too. Maybe unrelated, but couldn't help noticing.

Anyway, I hope he makes a full recovery and that he comes back strong, but I can imagine him starting to look elsewhere bike-wise. Which isn't going to be easy from a lengthy injury situation.

I remember when no matter how badly Rea crashed, his Kawasaki always seemed to remain rideable. I was surprised it didn’t catch fire with the fuel it dumped. 

Going to be a long season unless AB makes a mistake or three. 

Get well soon Michael Van der Mark. 

Four Yamahas in the top six! Toprak we would expect to be there. Locatelli is proving he is fast. New boys Dominique Aegeter and Remy Gardner look the part too. Nice to see RG87 take a good result after a tough day on Saturday. Remy finished ahead of several riders with much more experience in SBK.

Tom Sykes gets a point. The bike actually finished the race!!

Assen looking very cool last weekend. 

That was pretty gruesome viewing, haven't felt that ill in front of TV since Toni Elias did something similar at Ramshoek some years back.  I was initially concerned it was a fully blown-out knee by the angle when he was shown having come to rest, but the subsequent (awful) replay showed it was clearly a femur which is probably a "better" outcome.  Having just googled it he has already had an operation at either Assen or Groeningen hospital.  I hope it's not the same guy that did Mick Doohan back in the day!

Wishing him all the best, he's certainly had a rough run of it lately.  Reminds me he had a huge highside at hayshed in round one.  He was somewhat lucky with that one, not so this time.  BMW electronics and/or chassis setup certainly do not appear to be very forgiving.