From farewell to the MotoGP to revenge in the 'derivatives'
The inaugural weekend of the championship Superbikes at Phillip Island in Australia it gave emotions and twists from the first to the last meter and, fortunately, no protagonist suffered serious consequences following falls which on a track as fast as the Australian one can also be costly as Jonathan Rea knows well , who raced with the after-effects of a disastrous crash in the tests at the beginning of the week and ran into another scary accident today in Turn-11.
Motorcycling Italy was awaiting the Superbike debut of Nicolò Bulega and Andrea Iannone and the two 'ex' MotoGP riders did not disappoint expectations. After fighting in Superpole – pole position for Nicolò Bulega with track record and second position for Andrea Iannone – in Race-1 The Maniac started very strong leading the peloton in the first laps of the race. Nicolò Bulega then regained the lead of the race and never relinquished it until the checkered flag. Debut victory for Bulega in Superbike like other greats such as Max Biaggi and Alvaro Bautista, a new consecration for the 1999 class from Montecchio who defined yesterday as “perhaps the most beautiful of my life”.
The exit from VR46 and the rebirth with Ducati
Bulega arrived in the Moto3 World Championship at the end of 2015 within the VR46 team fresh from the Junior World Championship title in Spain. The second place in Jerez in the fourth race of 2016 foreshadowed a bright future in the MotoGP for 'Bulegas', but subsequently only one more podium was achieved that year in Motegi. In 2019 he left the VR46 riders academy and after three years without particular satisfaction in Moto2 he restarted from Supersport in 2022 with Ducati who had no doubts in focusing on him for the ambitious project which in 2023 resulted in domination of the Supersport World Championship, a calling card which earned him promotion to Superbike. Now Ducati effectively runs as a two-pronged team and already has the future at home given that Alvaro Bautista could also opt to retire at the end of 2024 after having extended his career for another season beyond 2023. Also worth highlighting is the fact that given that among the drivers the value of each one is recognized regardless of the vehicle available, Danilo Petrucci had genuinely declared that he was happy for Nicolò Bulega after the Portimao tests because his compatriot had found himself again after difficult years.
Paradise after 4 years of disqualification for doping
Bulega wasn't the only one chasing the spotlight at Phillip Island. Andrea Iannone in Australia on one of his favorite tracks was finally able to put an end to a very long four-year disqualification after testing positive for drostanolone in a test carried out in Malaysia at the end of 2019, a report disputed by the rider from Vasto who hired a tug of war with WADA, a duel which only resulted in bringing Iannone's disqualification to the maximum allowed by law. Iannone could have closed the Phillip Island round with a triple podium, but in the Superpole Race he was the victim of a technical problem, while in Race-2 he lost the derby at the end with Danilo Petrucci, author of an extraordinary last lap, a feat that brought to four the number of Italian riders who reached the podium this weekend (Bulega, Iannone, Petrucci and Andrea Locatelli).
Rea flops, Razgatlioglu ko
The platoon of Italian riders who found a new competitive life in the derivatives of the series after leaving the MotoGP world championship thus took on a scene that awaited the two greats of the championship making their debut on a new bike, that is Toprak Razgatlioglu riding the BMW and Jonathan Rea riding the Yamaha. The Turk – who after Race 1 could not resist the temptation to underline how great it was to overtake Alvaro Bautista on the straight after having for years suffered the power of the Panigale V4R in the paint stripping suffered by his R1 – was betrayed precisely by a technical problem in Race-2 attributable to the engine, but at least he was able to celebrate his first podium with the M 1000 RR thanks to third place in the Superpole Race.
Jonathan Rea, on the other hand, even closed the first weekend of the season with no points under his belt. The record holder of titles and victories in Superbike finished Race-1 in 17th position, the Superpole Race in tenth position and then crashed in Turn-11 in Race-2, a crash which led to the display of the red flag. Not having suffered physical consequences is the most important result for the Cannibal, but the start sportingly speaking was a real shock.
Lowes and Locatelli, what a rematch
Those who have taken great revenge are the two former wingmen of Razgatlioglu and Rea. Andrea Locatelli achieved two second places and crashed on the last lap in Race-2 when he was once again fighting for victory, Alex Lowes – no stranger to top-level performances in Australia – took a double in Sunday's races and look all from the top of the standings at 50 points in a season which also sees his twin Sam on the track astride the Ducati fielded by the Marc VDS team on his debut in Superbike.
After this whirlwind of emotions we will now have to wait a little before seeing the Superbike protagonists back on the track. Appointment in a month in Barcelona for the second round of a championship that has experienced a crazy weekend at Phillip Island and which includes two new protagonists ready to break the 'monotony' of the Bautista-Razgatlioglu-Rea trio of recent seasons: Nicolò Bulega and Andrea Iannone.
#Superbike #phoenixes #Bulega #Iannone #reborn #Ducati
