Jonathan Rea is back in the championship lead thanks to his Race 1 win on the new A0721 specification SC1 solution at the front and the A0557 specification SCX solution at the rear. Redding and Razgatlioglu round out the podium.
Assen (Netherlands), 24 July 2021 – Defending World Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) won Race 1 today in the fifth round of the MOTUL FIM World Superbike Championship which is being held this weekend at TT Circuit Assen.
For the Northern Irish rider from the Akashi-based manufacturer, this win, which arrived thanks in part to reliance on the new development solutions recently introduced by Pirelli, means a return to the championship lead with a 7-point gap ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1) and 69 over Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R), respectively on the third and second steps of the podium in Race 1.
As for the tyres, various combinations were used in the race, but the set preferred by most of the riders, including race winner and reigning World Champion Jonathan Rea, was made up of the development solutions recently brought by Pirelli. These are the A0721 specification SC1 development solution on the front, making its début here in Assen, and the A0557 specification SCX tyre on the rear, successfully introduced at the Misano round.
WorldSBK Race 1:
At the start of Race 1, Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) got off the line well from pole position, moving into the lead ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1) and Ducati rider Scott Redding (ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R). During the third lap, Michael Ruben Rinaldi (ARUBA.IT Racing - Ducati / Ducati Panigale V4 R) and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR) crashed out, ending their respective races early and thereby leaving the leading trio, all within a half a second of one another, to battle it out for the Race 1 victory and for the championship lead. Scott Redding overtook the Yamaha rider and, with an outstanding pace, began to threaten the reigning World Champion as well, who fended off the attacks well, so much that he was still leading the group at the mid-race point. Lying fourth was hometown hero BMW rider Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team / BMW M 1000 RR), after starting from the ninth spot on the grid, ahead of Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK / Yamaha YZF R1) and Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team / Yamaha YZF R1), who managed to fight his way up through the ranks after starting dead last. In the meantime, Jonathan Rea, who had chosen to race with the new A0721 SC1 development solution on the front and the A0557 SCX development solution on the rear, built up a lead of over two seconds ahead of the other two riders and, with two laps left to go, when the red flag came out due to a crash by Jonas Folger (Bonovo MGM Racing / BMW M 1000 RR), was crowned Race 1 winner ahead of Redding (second) and Razgatlioglu (third).
WorldSBK Race 1 Standings:
WorldSSP Race 1:
WorldSSP Race 1 began spectacularly, with back-and-forth overtaking in the podium positions between Dominique Aegerter (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R6), Steven Odendaal (Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha Team / Yamaha YZF R6) and Philipp Oettl (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-6R). Not far behind the leading trio were Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha / Yamaha YZF R6), Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha ParkinGo Team / Yamaha YZF R6) and Can Oncu (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing / Kawasaki ZX-6R), battling it out for fourth. The leading trio demonstrated an outstanding pace all the way to the end of the race and Dominique Aegerter continued to set the fastest lap, initially on the twelfth lap and then on the seventeenth, with a time of 1’37.688. The final laps of the race held no surprises with Swiss rider Dominique Aegerter finishing first, thereby consolidating his championship lead, ahead of Steven Odendaal and German rider Philipp Oettl.
WorldSSP Race 1 Standings:
WorldSSP300 Race 1:
At 12:45, after the first race of the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Cup 2021, Race 1 of the FIM Supersport 300 World Championship got underway, with three riders from team MTM Kawasaki finishing on the podium. Victory went to Spaniard Adrian Huertas (MTM Kawasaki / Kawasaki Ninja 400), who increases his championship lead by more than thirty points ahead of the second-place rider, Tom Booth-Amos (Fusport - RT Motorsports by SKM - Kawasaki / Kawasaki Ninja 400). Finishing behind him were Dutch riders Koen Meuffels (MTM Kawasaki / Kawasaki Ninja 400), second, and Jeffrey Buis (MTM Kawasaki / Kawasaki Ninja 400), third.
Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Cup:
Race 1 and Race 2 of the Yamaha R3 bLU cRU Cup 2021 were won respectively by young Brazilian rider Humberto Maier (#12) and by Spanish Iker Garcia Abella (#2).
The Pirelli solutions chosen by the WorldSBK riders for Race 1:
In WorldSBK Race 1, tyre choices varied greatly, but the combination used the most by the riders was the new A0721 SC1 development solution on the front (option A) and the A0557 SCX development solution on the rear (option B). This was also the choice of Race 1 winner Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK / Kawasaki ZX-10RR). Some riders, on the other hand, chose to race with the front standard SC1 (option C) and the rear standard SC0 (option C) solutions, including Scott Redding, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Kohta Nozane. The rest of the grid opted instead for different combinations, but the most used front was the new A0721 specification SC1 development solution (nine riders out of twenty) and the most used rear was the A0557 SCX development solution introduced recently in Misano (eleven riders out of twenty).
In WorldSSP Race 1, half the grid chose the new A0460 specification SC1 development solution, whereas the remainder of the riders preferred the standard SC1. At the rear, on the other hand, most of the riders chose to race with the super soft standard SCX, whereas the others opted for the soft standard SC0 solution.
Pirelli statistics for WorldSBK Race 1:
Pirelli statistics for WorldSSP Race 1:
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