Andrea Iannone takes his first 2024 WSBK victory.

The race win is the Italian’s first victory in World Superbikes and his first since returning to the sport after recieving a four yearban from Motorcycle Racing for doping offences in 2019. This is also Iannone’s first visit to the top step of the podium since he wonthe 2016 Austrian MotoGP race 2967 days ago. The 34 year old joins an illestrious list of only nineteen riders to have taken victories in both MotoGP and World Superbikes.

Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) lead the field into turn one, in front of Andrea Ianonne (Team GoEleven) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) his closest challengers. Before the leaders had completed the firstlap the race was red flagged after British rider Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) suffered an engine failure on his bike which resulted in a nastyhighside crash and appeared to contaminate the track with oil.

On the warm-up lap of the restarted race, disaster struck for Bulega whose championship aspirations took a huge blow after suffering a mechanical failure on his way to the grid and forcing the Italian to retire from the race.

Iannone led an Italian 1-2-3 from the restart, with the in-form Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) and Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) close on his tail. Petrucci would briefly take the lead on lap seven before dropping back to finish the race in fifth, while Locatelli would eventually finish tenth. The returning Razgatlioglu, heroically finished in second place only 0.845 behind Iannone after recovering sufficiently enough from a collapsed lung sustained three weeks ago to be passed fit to race.

American, Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW) achieved his second podium of the season in third place, while defending champion Alvaro Bautista could only manage fourth place and lost ground to Razgatioglu in the title battle.

HRC continued their progression with Spanish duo Iker Lecouna and Xavi Vierge finishing in sixth and eighth place, Sandwiching Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes in seventh and BMW’S Michael Van der Mark in ninth. Scott Redding celebrated the birth of his and his wife’s first child this week and claimed a handful of points in eleventh place in his first race since becoming a dad.

Behind Redding, Italian pair Axel Bassani and Michael Rinaldi finished twelfth and thirteenth. Jonathan Rea struggled with front tyre traction on his return to action after injury and was disappointed to only finish fourteenth, fellow Brit Bradley Ray claimed the last point in fifteenth. Behind Ray, Remy Gardner and Phillip Oettl finished sixteenth and seventeenth while the final British rider on the grid, Tarran Mackenzie was last of the finishers in eighteenth aboard his MIE Racing Honda. Mackenzie’s team-mate Adam Norrodin was declared unfit for the remainder of the weekend after Practice on Friday after attempting to return from injury. As well as Bulega and Sam Lowes, Marvin Fritz and Tito Rabat both suffered technical problems and were forced to retire.

Featured Image: Ksc Photography Services.