Danilo Petrucci He won his first race in the Superbike World Championship this Saturday, and at home in Cremona. The former official MotoGP rider became winner of the series-derived motorcycle championship, adding to his triumphs in the premier class and at the Dakar Rally.. Nicolò Bulega And Alvaro Bautistacoming back, they completed the podium in a Race 1 which had to stop early, six laps from the end, due to technical problems on the track. There was no restart of the race, more than two thirds of the planned distance having been covered.
During an eventful Superpole, Bulega secured first place on the grid, despite a crash. The Italian shared the front row with Andrea Iannone And Alex Loweswhile Bautista was forced to return from 13th place, suffering from a rib injury suffered during his crash at Magny-Cours.
Bulega held the lead at the start and led throughout the first lap. Tito Rabat He crashed at turn 10 and the start was not entirely good for Bautista, who did not progress significantly from the fifth row. At the end of the second lap, Petrucci was already third, leaving three Ducatis in the lead. since Andrea Iannone was second.
In fact, in the 3rd round, Iannone managed to guide his teammate inside the track thanks to a maneuver. Bulega lost his position soon after, along with Petrucci, and finished third. The native of Barni began to put pressure on Iannone and inherited the lead on the fifth lap.
After a third of the race, a group of four drivers at the front formed, with Danilo Petrucci, Andrea Iannone, Nicolo Bulega and Alex Lowes less than a second behind. On lap nine, Iannone ended up in the gravel at turn 7, knocking him out of the race.
And, after that, Bautista managed to enter the race and began to overtake and defeat. That of Talavera de la Reina fought a spectacular battle with Michael van der Markfrom BMW. And as a result, he takes eighth place. Meanwhile, Alex Lowes also crashed at Turn 7, leading to a duel between Petrucci and Bulega midway through the first race of the weekend. In addition, Locatelli moved up to third position. Behind them were the two official Hondas. Iker Lecuona And Xavi Virgo. And Bautista took seventh place.
The No. 1 continued to fight to be in the top 3, overtaking Axel BassaniXavi Virgo and Andrea Locatelli to place fourth at the end of the 15th lap. Then he fought for the podium with Lecuona. At the front, the gap between Petrucci and Bulega has widened. The former was on his way to victory and the official driver of Borgo Panigale refrained from taking unnecessary risks.. Behind, on the 16th lap, Bautista decided the duel against the Valencian in his favor and took 3rd place.
A technical problem caused the race to be stopped prematurely after 18 laps. Petrucci was declared the winner and celebrated the victory with his team, Barni. Bulega added 20 points and reduced the championship gap to 35 with Toprak Razgatlioğluincluding the motorcycle, driven by Markus Reiterbergerfitted a new engine, with the German set to serve a sanction, but it will help the Turk face the end of 2024 more comfortably, if he can return due to his injury.
Bautista finished third after this gallop forward to climb 10 positions. Iker Lecuona found himself close to the podium. Axel Bassani achieved his best result to date as Kawasakiwith a fifth place. Xavi Virgo finished sixth. Michael van der Mark Garrett Gerloff, Michael Rinaldi And Remy Gardner They close the Top 10.