WorldSBK Aragón: Great comeback and celebrated podium finishes.

Alcañiz. After missing two race weekends due to his severe crash at Magny-Cours (FRA), Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR) made an impressive return. The BMW Motorrad factory rider made his comeback in the tenth round of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) at MotorLand Aragón (ESP) – both on track and on the podium. After not still being able to compete the previous week at Cremona (ITA) due to a mild pneumothorax, Razgatlioglu was back to his usual strength on his ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team BMW M 1000 RR, finishing second in all three races. That extended his lead in the championship standings, now giving him a 39-point advantage. Saturday even saw a double podium for the BMW Motorrad Motorsport family as Garrett Gerloff (USA) from the Bonovo action BMW Racing Team, who had another strong weekend in Spain, finished third behind Razgatlioglu.

Michael van der Mark (NED / ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Scott Redding (GBR / Bonovo action BMW Racing Team) also collected valuable points at MotorLand Aragón.

Race one on Saturday afternoon turned into a real thriller, ending with BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s first WorldSBK double podium in three years. The race was red-flagged on the first lap due to track conditions. After the restart, the nearly 28,000 fans witnessed 17 laps of action-packed racing. At the front, a group battled fiercely for the lead and podium spots. Razgatlioglu, starting from fifth, and van der Mark, coming from eleventh, were right in the mix. Van der Mark fell back mid-race, but Gerloff, after an excellent comeback, was now in the thick of things. Starting from tenth, Gerloff climbed to third by lap nine and was hunting down the leaders. In the following laps, Razgatlioglu and Gerloff swapped second place several times, putting pressure on the race leader, Andrea Iannone (ITA / Ducati). After a nail-biting finish, Razgatlioglu finished second, and Gerloff took third, both stepping onto the podium together. Van der Mark finished ninth. Redding, who was pushed off track at the start and rejoined the race in 17th, fought his way back to 11th.

Sunday morning’s Superpole Race was no less thrilling. This time, a three-way battle for the lead went down to the wire. Razgatlioglu moved into second in lap two and battled with the two Ducati factory riders, Nicolo Bulega (ITA) and Alvaro Bautista (ESP). After several lead changes, the race was decided in the final moments, with Razgatlioglu securing second place for his second podium since his comeback. Gerloff aimed to improve his grid position for race two, which he successfully did by finishing fifth. Van der Mark impressed with another comeback, recovering from 18th at the start to finish eighth. Like Razgatlioglu and Gerloff, he also improved his starting position. Redding ensured all four BMW M 1000 RRs finished in the top ten, missing out on ninth by just two-tenths of a second to finish tenth.

In Sunday afternoon’s second main race, Bautista and Razgatlioglu sprinted away from the field. The pair broke multiple lap records while fighting for the win, with Razgatlioglu sticking closely to Bautista’s rear, waiting for his chance. However, in the closing stages, Razgatlioglu had to drop back slightly but still finished second for the third time during his comeback weekend. Gerloff was again in the fight for the podium and finished fifth. Van der Mark raced with the lead group early on and crossed the finish line in seventh after 18 laps. Redding wrapped up his weekend with an 11th place finish.

The WorldSBK now takes a one-week break before heading to the penultimate round of the season at Estoril, Portugal, from 11th to 13th. The season finale will be held just one week later at Jerez de la Frontera (ESP).

Reactions after the MotorLand Aragón round.

Sven Blusch, Head of BMW Motorrad Motorsport: “It was another exciting weekend, one that can definitely be summed up with the word ‘comeback.’ You really have to give Toprak credit for the mental strength he’s shown after coming back from such a serious crash. In my eyes, he had a perfect weekend considering that he’s just come out of an injury break. He collected a lot of points, extended his lead in every race, and was always ahead of his title rival Nicolo Bulega. I think we can be very happy with that. Now we’re already preparing for the next two race weekends. On Mickey’s side of the garage, you could see how he became more comfortable with the bike as the weekend progressed. He had some really good moments in the race but also a bit of bad luck. But overall, the pace was there.

With Garrett, the upward trend is clear. He had a very good race weekend, especially Saturday with his podium! You really have to highlight the hard but fair fight with Toprak. It was great to see how the BMW riders treated each other fairly on the track and brought out the best for BMW together. Scott’s weekend was better overall than the previous one. He managed to achieve some better results and continues to get full support to set up the bike as best as possible for the races.

Our conclusion: We are back! The championship fight is fully on again, and we’re going into the last two race weekends with a good points cushion. We’re looking forward to Estoril!”

Toprak Razgatlioglu, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 5 / R01: 2 / SP Race: 2 / R02: 2): “I am happy because I did an incredibly good job this weekend and I enjoyed being back on my bike. I was riding more than 100 percent. The Superpole race today was really fun because for the first time this weekend I felt that the bike was really good. The bike was stopping and turning like I wanted and the feeling was much better. I was fighting with Bulega and I was not expecting that Bautista would attack in the chicane. Anyway, I was very close to the win. Alvaro is always very strong here, but not only him but all Ducatis. In race two, I again did my best to battle with him but on the last laps my rear tyre started to drop, and on the last laps, the Ducatis had more grip than the other bikes. And Alvaro was really pushing hard so I thought, okay, I settle for second position as it was impossible to catch him. Especially in the long corners, he had a big advantage. He did an incredible job, it looks like he has come back. I am happy for him. Now we have two more rounds and I will focus now on Estoril. I need to win there. Physically I only feel some muscle pain now but this is normal after this time without training. Especially the last race was very hard because the pace was very strong, everyone was pushing hard. On the bike, I am feeling good and I just need some training now. When we come to Estoril it will be much better because the feeling is improving every day. In general I am happy. Thinking of Estoril, maybe we can be World Champions there but at the moment I just focus on winning there because I love Estoril and after many wins, second position is a bit difficult for me. I hope that we will come back at Estoril.”

Garrett Gerloff, Bonovo action BMW Racing Team (SP: 10 / R01: 3 / SP Race: 5 / R02: 5): “This was probably the best weekend I’ve had for a very long time. That’s definitely really positive. I’m nevertheless a bit disappointed because I thought I would have a bit more pace today to be able to stay in third. It feels like for some reason I was lacking a bit of pace compared to Nicolo, Alvaro and Toprak. They really just had a super fast pace today. I did everything that I could, I had a great battle with Iannone, but on the last lap I missed the shift, that didn’t help me at all. All in all it was a super good weekend with always being in the top five except of Superpole. I was feeling really comfortable on the bike in the last races and I have the feeling I am able to really push. All I needed was that the bike gets predictable for me and that I can ride a bit beyond it, so a lot of things came together with me, the bike and the team and it feels good.  Now I’m looking forward to go to Estoril - I think it’s a good track for the BMWs and I really like the track, it has a great flow.”

Michael van der Mark, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP: 11 / R01: 9 / SP Race: 8 / R02: 7): “The weekend started pretty tough, we struggled somehow on Friday, but Saturday went already much better. Superpole was ok. I think I could have done a little better lap, but P11 was not too bad. In race one, I had a really good start but unfortunately I couldn’t maintain the pace and dropped back a lot. So it was a shame because I was in some nice battles, and finished 9th in the first race. During the Superpole race, I had an ok start but I had two overtakes where I went wide, nearly off track. So I had to come from almost last. Finishing in the top ten has shown that I had a good pace. It wasn’t bad though but I was a little bit angry because I lost a lot of time at the beginning. Anyways, I was ready for race two and I had a fantastic start but struggled with the front of the bike at the beginning of the race. That’s why I couldn’t really stay with the guys in front of me. After a couple of laps I found a good rhythm to avoid the problems and I had a nice and consistent pace. I was really fast, so we managed to get some good points. But for Estoril for sure we want more.”

Scott Redding, Bonovo action BMW Racing Team (SP: 14 / R01: 11 / SP Race: 10 / R02: 11): “My weekend was pretty good. Getting some feeling with the bike on Friday and in the race on Saturday gave me some confidence. The warm up was reasonably good. In the Superpole race, I was battling for ninth position, but didn’t quite get it. But I was happy enough for tenth at this moment, even though I really wanted to be in the top nine. In race two I had a good start and a clean first lap and felt pretty good. The pace was faster this afternoon, but I just missed actually something. Not the pace itself, I was riding fast, strong, consistent but I just didn’t have the pace of the group in front. Also again this weekend, I was struggling a little bit to overtake without costing me and the other rider too much time. Overall I’m happy, because coming into this weekend I think me and everybody else thought it was going to be a really hard weekend for me and honestly I expected to be fighting in 15th position this weekend, because Aragón has been very difficult for me in the past. But the team and BMW have done a good job to put a package underneath me that I could build confidence with this weekend and to come away with some for me reasonable results here at Aragón. Now I can go home and see my son.”