Michael Van der Mark rain wizard at Magny Cours: the Dutchman won Race 1 of the French round, the eighth round of the Superbike World Championship, dominating in the pouring rain. The top two in the championship are out of the running, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, injured on Friday afternoon, and Nicolò Bulega, who fell at the last variant at the end of the first lap together with Jonathan Rea. The Italian Ducati rider suffered bruises to his right shoulder and collarbone, the Irish Yamaha rider was taken to hospital with a fractured right thumb and a deep wound. On Sunday morning, both will have to be assessed by the medical commission, which will decide whether they can take part in the warm up and the races. Razgatlıoğlu currently maintains his lead in the standings.
Rain lottery
It was a strange race, starting in mixed weather conditions, with some starting on intermediate tyres and many others on slicks, and when the rain increased they were forced to pit between laps three and five to change back to wets as the track began to flood.
Alex Lowes was in the lead for the first three laps, then it was Garrett Gerloff’s turn, who was on intermediate tyres, and he remained there until lap seven, when he crashed. Lowes continued to fight at the front but on lap 11 he also crashed, restarted in seventh position and then had to retire due to a loose fairing that was hanging to one side. From halfway through the race, however, van der Mark began to pull away and won with a margin of 8”288. Alvaro Bautista managed to finish second, against all odds: he started from the penultimate position after a disastrous race, but in the rain he showed his determination and recovered to second place, reducing his gap in the standings compared to his teammate Bulega to 30 points.
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Bautista surprises: second place for him
Petrucci on the podium
There were many riders who shone and then ended up on the ground. Instead, Danilo Petrucci made no mistakes, climbing from seventh position on the first lap to third, reached on the 11th lap, and remained there, arriving to conquer the podium, first of the “independents”.
Scott Redding crashed on lap 9 at Turn 5, but got back up and recovered to take fourth place ahead of Andrea Iannone.
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When it rains Petrucci is a certainty: comeback and third place
Locatelli falls and starts again
Xavi Vierge would have finished sixth but was penalized for not respecting the intervention time imposed during the pit stop, and lost a position to his Honda HRC teammate Iker Lecuona. Andrea Locatelli, who fell on the third lap, still got back on the bike and managed to finish eighth, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Alessandro Delbianco, Axel Bassani who also fell and restarted, and Gerloff, who also returned to the track after his fall and finished last but 12th, that is, gaining 4 points. Among the riders who exited the scene due to accidents were also Remy Gardner, Sam Lowes, Tarran Mackenzie, Ivo Lopes and Tito Rabat, in a race that could not have been more tormented.
Here are the top six of Race 1
1. Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team)
2. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +8.288
3. Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) +24.285
4. Scott Redding (Bonovo Action BMW) +34.037
5. Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven) +42.108
6. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) +50,799
Fastest lap: Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha) – 1’42.753
