Conclusion of an incredible weekend: Another victory and podium for Toprak Razgatlioglu and the BMW M 1000 RR on WorldSBK Sunday at Barcelona.

Barcelona. The second race weekend of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship (WorldSBK) at Barcelona (ESP) turned into a success story for BMW Motorrad Motorsport. Following the pole position and the celebrated first joint victory on Saturday, Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR) and the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK had plenty to cheer about on Sunday as well. Razgatlioglu claimed his next victory in the extremely exciting Superpole Race in the morning and followed it up with a third-place finish on the podium in the second main race. Teammate Michael van der Mark (NED) returned to the front group with a fourth-place finish. The Bonovo action BMW Racing Team secured another top ten finish with Garrett Gerloff (USA).

The Superpole Race on Sunday morning kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Starting from pole position, Razgatlioglu initially dropped to fifth place. In the fourth of ten laps, he moved up to fourth place, and in the following lap, he made a sensational manoeuvre to regain the lead. He then battled with Andrea Iannone (ITA / Ducati) and Alvaro Bautista (ESP / Ducati) with several lead changes for the victory. In the last corner, Razgatlioglu once again executed an impressive manoeuvre and clinched his second victory of the weekend.

Razgatlioglu also started the second main race on Sunday afternoon from pole position. After the start, he was briefly in fourth place, but it didn’t take long for him to work his way into the podium positions. He stayed close behind the leading Ducati riders Bautista and Nicolò Bulega (ITA) for a long time, but this time it wasn’t enough for a final sprint back to the very top. Thus, Razgatlioglu concluded his extremely successful Barcelona weekend with a third-place finish on the podium. After the finish, he embraced teammate van der Mark, who completed the strong team result in fourth place. In the Superpole Race, van der Mark finished sixth.

The Bonovo action BMW Racing Team returned to the top ten on Sunday. Both riders, Gerloff and Scott Redding (GBR), engaged in a long duel with several position changes. In the end, Gerloff prevailed in tenth place, with Redding following just 0.4 seconds behind in eleventh place.

The third round of the 2024 WorldSBK season will be held from 19th to 21st April at Assen (NED).

Reactions after race two at Barcelona.

Marc Bongers, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “Before we came here, we hoped to claim another podium. That was the target after a good test last week but we also saw that the Ducatis were extremely strong. To come away four trophies, pole position, two wins and one podium, is absolutely magnificent. I am speechless, honestly. It is extremely good for the project and I am even looking further forward to the rest of the season which gives me more confidence. Not just Toprak, also Mickey did a fantastic job, with fourth in qualifying yesterday, sixth in this morning’s Superpole Race and a very strong fourth position in main race two. It’s well deserved. I just enjoy the moment right now. It is highly emotional, this weekend had only ups. We’ve had enough downs in the past years so it’s good to get through the valley of tears. On the Bonovo side, the weekend was more difficult but in the final race, Garrett and Scott were in the ball park so we can build from there and like I said, there are better races to come. Overall, this weekend leaves me overwhelmed and very pleased.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP Race: 1 / R02: 3): “I am really happy for this moment because this is a dream. Not only for me, for BMW and the team. We claimed two victories at Barcelona, and for me it has been an amazing weekend. Especially today’s last race was a very hard, the pace was really strong. Alvaro started normal and then pushed very hard. I just tried to follow him but I felt a lot of spinning and closed the gas because in a 20-lap race you need a good tyre with good grid for the last five laps. But in general, I am very happy because we were on the podium in all three races, including two wins. Especially the Superpole Race was incredible, when I passed Alvaro in the last corner. I think this is in my top three overtakes of my career. I am also very happy for BMW. We are coming step by step and I think we will be stronger on the other race tracks. Everyone is very happy and will now work even harder. We have a very good package. We are coming, we are not so far and this year I think we can get many wins and I hope that we will be World Champions. I hope!”

Michael van der Mark, ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (SP Race: 6 / R02: 4): “Honestly I think for the whole team it has been a fantastic weekend. This was one of our worst tracks and to see Toprak getting two wins, another podium and the pole position, was great, and I had some really strong results this weekend, too. So I am really happy, really satisfied with the improvement on the bikes. Honestly, to finish P6 this morning was quite good, but to finish fourth in race two was a big relief for me. It’s nice to see that I get back on a really good level and I’m just really happy with the whole weekend. I think it gives the whole team a big boost, and also for me, for the next race at Assen which I am really looking forward to. At least now we arrive there knowing how good the package can be.”

Garrett Gerloff, Bonovo action BMW Racing Team (SP Race: 17 / R02: 10): “So we are at the end of the weekend. I am not going to lie, I was hoping and expecting a better weekend than it was. We just struggled a bit with some things. I feel like I struggle with some riding stuff on my side and also I had some issues with some setting stuff on the bike side. It wasn’t easy, there weren’t clear answers and I am kind of leaving the weekend thinking that we don’t have a clear answer of what we were missing. We were just missing something that’s not small. We just try to regroup over the next weeks and come back to Assen and have a strong race there.”

Scott Redding, Bonovo action BMW Racing Team (SP Race: 12 / R02: 11): “The weather today was unexpected. We had some rain this morning so we did not ride in the warm up. The Superpole Race was quite good for me. I felt pretty good so I managed to gain some confidence for race two. There, I was really motivated to finish in the top ten. That was my goal. I came off the start, I came together with Dominique Aegerter so I lost some positions. Then in turn three, Iker Lecouna just ran me off the track, so I lost again some positions and then we kind of settled; the group was trying to save the tyres. Then there was a big crash in turn one. I am happy that they both walked away okay from it. There was a gap I had to try to close and I used my tyre more. I felt good on the bike, that was the main thing. I felt that I could actually push the bike and start to race and have confidence. On the last few laps, the tyre dropped more. I finished 11th in the end; the top ten was there. So I was happy, because Barcelona is one of the worst tracks in the calendar for me and I came away with confidence which is the first time in three years that this has happened, so I look forward to the next round.”