WSBK: Five things to take away from the 2021 UK Round

The WorldSBK championship was back in action and back on track at Donington Park and as per usual, the Leicestershire circuit delivered surprises aplenty.

As the championship pendulum swung towards the blue corner, the title fight has very much turned into a two-horse race, albeit not the one a lot of people expected. However, the races at Donington also proved the depth of the field as all manufacturers claimed at least one top 5 finish/

An unlikely victory from the fifth row of the grid, an uncharacteristic mistake, breakthrough performances and silly season in full swing, the UK Round certainly created headlines.

Collector’s item

Going into the weekend, all the talk surrounded the impact the great British weather may have on the championship fight. Historically, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) has not done amazingly well in the wet and with rain expected, speculations on how much ground he may lose to Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) started already before the first green flag was waved.

However, if tricky conditions were a chink in Razgatlioglu’s armour, he plastered it at Donington. Although the Yamaha rider could not exceed P13 in the soaking qualifying session, he defied the damp track and stormed to an unlikely win in Race 1.

The conditions troubled him just as little in a comeback race on Sunday morning and Razgatlioglu topped his weekend off with victory in the dry Race 2. After all the discussions on how much his title challenge would suffer, it is almost ironic that Razgatlioglu leaves the UK with the championship lead.

To stick with the metaphor, Rea’s armour is widely regarded to have no chinks whatsoever. While this admission is accurate nine out of 10 times, said 10^th time arrived in Race 2 at Donington.

Having taken the lead through a mistake by Razgatlioglu at Coppice, Rea’s race effectively ended a lap later at the same corner. Most likely pushing to break his opponent, the reigning champion ran ever so slightly wide, off the gas, over the bump and down in the gravel.

Although it is highly improbable that uncharacteristic mistakes will become frequent mistakes, the pressure is certainly on. Everything is pointing towards a straight title shootout between Razgatlioglu and Rea where any chink in the armour can be deadly, metaphorically speaking.

Seeing red

The Rea versus Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) for the title narrative is increasingly losing substance after another weekend to forget for the Ducati rider. Donington Park does not suit the Panigale at the best of times, but the meeting truly turned into worst case scenario for Redding.

Countless headshakes marked his practice sessions and Redding struggled to get to grips with the track and his bike. Although he somehow managed to salvage P6 in qualifying, his Race 1 came to a very early end when he highsided out at Hollywood on Lap 2.

A wrong tyre choice spoiled his chances in the Superpole Race already before the lights went out. Interestingly, Redding rolled onto the grid after the warm up lap yet again with his head shaking but yet he did not elect to change tyres.

Granted, a sprint race can hardly be won from pit lane, but a tyre switch would have at least opened the possibility to challenge for points rather than finishing last.

Race 2 brought consolation as Redding finally found his rhythm and rode a smooth race to fourth, only narrowly missing out on a podium finish. The damage, however, was already done.

Throughout the weekend, Redding looked somewhat lost and uncomfortable. His championship disadvantage to Rea is up to 66 points and although his title charge may not quite be over just yet, it has become very difficult indeed.

“It’s kind of hard for me; we’re doing one thing with the set-up, then we’re doing another way and it’s just trial and error all the time so I’m not really getting rhythm. I’m tipping into the corner and I already feel the rear sliding. As soon as I touch the throttle, it’s going. There’s no feeling to have grip.”

Scott Redding

Breakthrough performance

The UK Round was an outstanding weekend for the BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team. After bagging a double-front row in qualifying, Tom Sykes and Michael van der Mark went on to claim three podium finishes.

Sykes made the best of the return to his beloved Donington Park and secured his maiden two rostrum finishes of the season, his first since 2019 and his first consecutive podiums since 2018, incidentally taken at the same track.

Van der Mark bettered fifth in Race 1 with third in the sprint race and ended the weekend with another solid P5 finish. The momentum looks on the Dutchman’s side ahead of his home round at Assen.

BMW had achieved the odd podium before, but crucially, the ones at Donington were not a result of iffy conditions. The M 1000 RR’s pace was genuine and the hard work in the garage is finally starting to pay off.

The challenging issue to watch in regard to future development is that Sykes’ style is significantly different to the other three BMW riders on the grid. The former champion excels at stopping his bike, getting it turned and shooting it out of a corner, opposing the somewhat smoother technique of his marque colleagues.

Balancing the different inputs is no doubt a challenge, but BMW keep proving that they are on the right track with the novel 2021 bike.

Home advantage

It is fair to say that the Honda is still somewhat lacking in performance and a lot of things have to come together for the Team HRC riders Leon Haslam and Alvaro Bautista to achieve a top result.

Consequently, Haslam has so far this season been rather invisible but his home round gave him the chance to turn his form around. Hardly anyone has done more laps around Donington than the Derbyshire rider and likewise hardly anyone will have been happier looking at the wet weather forecast.

Haslam delivered by far the best weekend of his season with sixth in Race 1 and fourth in the Superpole Race. Set-up problems cost him in Race 2 where he could not exceed P9, but nevertheless, the UK Round proved a silver lining in a so far rather bleak campaign.

Haslam’s pace largely looked strong, although issues remained in the final sector where the CBR1000 RR-R struggled with the start-stop character. Acceleration from tight corners continues to be the limiting factor and will require work on mechanical grip and the electronics set-up going forward.

“I felt quite consistent, I was really competitive for the first 75 per cent of the lap. We need to rectify the last three corners and then I feel we can be in a much better fight.

We were not too far away from the podium, the pace was there. I didn’t have anything really to fight and pass with, but I could easily catch (other riders) and be there.”

Leon Haslam

The talk of the paddock

… concerned a different paddock. The announcement of Maverick Viñales’ imminent departure from the Yamaha MotoGP squad sparked wild rumours around who may fill the vacant ride.

Razgatlioglu was regarded a hot favourite to make the move, but speculations abruptly ended when the young Turk signed a two-year contract extension to stay in WorldSBK. The decision was largely met with incomprehension, however, Razgatlioglu’s reasoning adds up –

Not only does he not tire to emphasise that he is happy with his team in the WorldSBK paddock and that the amount of travelling and testing required in MotoGP is just not for him, Razgatlioglu’s priorities simply lie elsewhere.

MotoGP may be widely regarded as the pinnacle of bike racing and many riders aspire to bag a spot in the series, but Razgatlioglu, and crucially his manager and mentor Kenan Sofuoglu, set winning the WorldSBK title as the ultimate target.

And he is on a promising way to indeed do so; since joining Yamaha in 2020, Razgatlioglu claimed six victories plus another 12 podiums and never finished a race outside the top 10. Right now, he looks the rider to take a championship fight to Rea.

This leaves the question who will ride the vacant MotoGP Yamaha and the WorldSBK paddock is not yet out of the discussion. Garrett Gerloff’s (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) name too has been mentioned in relation to a series switch and this possibility is becoming increasingly likely following Razgatlioglu’s rejection.

Gerloff subbed in for Franco Morbidelli last weekend at the Dutch TT and did a respectable job on the prototype machine. The American made no secret of the fact that his target is to ride in MotoGP, so should an offer come in, one would believe that Gerloff is off.