Van der Mark wins a dramatic race and precedes Bautista and Petrucci. Bulega falls on the first lap together with Rea. Iannone fifth and Locatelli eighth. Exceptional tenth place for Delbianco
September 7, 2024
Without Razgatlioglu, who was released from hospital but obviously stuck in the pits, it was Michael Van der Mark who led BMW to victory. The Dutchman had not won since 2021 when in Portimao, in a partly wet race, he crossed the finish line first, giving the German manufacturer its only victory before the Toprak era.
Today’s race was incredible, starting on a wet track but without rain. There were many twists and turns right from the first lap, when in the esses leading to the finish line Nicolò Bulega, who had chosen to use intermediate tires, fell, dragging the blameless Jonathan Rea with him, who injured his right wrist.
The race continued with Alex Lowes in the lead, followed by Van der Mark and Gerloff. On the third lap it was Andrea Locatelli who slipped on the track made treacherous by the rain that had started to fall heavily, forcing the riders to return to the pits. The first to change tires was Alvaro Bautista. While the others stopped in their respective pits Garrett Gerloff, who like Bulega had opted for intermediates, continued his race, but slipped and got up and realized that the track was now too wet for intermediates. The American was the last to change tires. We are on the eighth lap and Van der Mark took the lead, closely followed by Alex Lowes who passed him during the ninth lap.
On the same lap Scott Redding slips and on the following one Axel Bassani imitates him. Both manage to get back on the bike and continue the race. In the meantime Lowes has overtaken the Dutchman of the BMW and is first, while behind them, even if very far behind, come Bautista and Danilo Petrucci who like a
hammer maintained a steady pace. On the eleventh lap, Alex Lowes crashed and rejoined the track in seventh place, but gave the green light to Van der Mark who had an advantage of over 10 seconds on the Spaniard on the Ducati and over 20 on the long-distance rider Petrucci. On the fourteenth lap, Bradley Ray crashed and threw away an excellent ninth place. In the meantime, Alex Lowes had climbed up to fifth place, but had to stop because his fairing was coming off.
While the positions in front do not change on the eighteenth lap Sam Lowes and for the second time Remy Gardner fall. We are at the final lap with the BMW box standing on the wall to celebrate an unexpected victory. Second position equally unexpected for Bautista who had started from the nineteenth place on the grid. The third step of the podium conquered by Petrucci who did not make any mistakes was more than deserved. Behind the Terni native were Redding, who got up after the fall, and a constant Andrea Iannone, for whom the same argument made for Danilo applies with the addition of the fact that the Team GoEleven rider had never raced on this track and had only used the Pirelli rain tires at Assen and not in the race.
The Honda HRC team celebrates the sixth place of Iker Lecuona and the seventh of Xavi Vierge (penalized for not respecting the minimum time established for the tire change). Andrea Locatelli finishes in eighth place, getting up after a slide, while the ninth position of Michael Ruben Rinaldi brings some optimism to the Motocorsa Team. The tenth place of Alessandro Delbianco on his debut on the Yamaha R1 SBK is incredible. The Italian rider is notoriously fast in the wet and was very good at not making mistakes and not letting slip the opportunity to get a great result, which will hopefully help him in the rest of his career.
