WSBK: Five things to take away from the 2021 Emilia-Romagna Round

Che spettacolo! The 2021 WorldSBK Emilia-Romagna Round did not quite flip the form book, but it did spring some surprises indeed.

Two riders secured their first wins of the season in Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) while it was a rare weekend without a Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) victory.

Joy for youngsters, despair for veterans and have we been focussing on the wrong rider in the title fight? The Emilia-Romagna Round added its own dynamics to the championship.

Double no trouble for Rinaldi

Rinaldi’s life as a full-factory Ducati rider got off to a rather challenging start. Being in the Bologna works team comes with opportunities but also, perhaps even primarily, with expectations and the Italian learned the hard way that living up to them can be a tough ask.

The opening Aragon Round saw Rinaldi finish outside the top 10 twice and not exceeding a seventh place finish – at a circuit where he won the previous season on a GoEleven Ducati. Estoril was better with two P5s before his Race 2 was brought to a premature end by the hand of Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team).

But it was this weekend at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli that the 25-year-old proved his factory promotion. Rinaldi stormed to victory in Race 1 and doubled up in the sprint race with impressive pace and his riding looking effortless.

Although Razgatlioglu denied him a hat-trick in Race 2, Rinaldi had his best weekend of the season – if not of his WorldSBK career – by far. Racing comes down to a rider’s mind as much as to on-track proceedings and the confidence and momentum gained at his home round could be just what he needs to get his 2021 campaign on track.

“I’m really happy about the weekend.  I improved the confidence with the bike. We are not 100 per cent yet because I miss something and we are not able to fix this kind of problem in the entry of the corner. So we need to improve this area, but for sure we made a good step forward compared to the first races.”

Michael Ruben Rinaldi

A duel written in the stars

The Emilia-Romagna Round was largely shaped by Rinaldi versus Razgatlioglu. The pair cancelled each other out over the course of one lap with the Yamaha gaining under braking going into a corner while the Ducati had an advantage at corner exit. At the end of each race, the two riders arranged first and runner-up between themselves exclusively.

It is no coincidence that we see Razgatlioglu and Rinaldi battle it out in WorldSBK – these two go way back. The (so far) friendly rivalry began in 2015 in European Superstock 600 where Razgatlioglu cut Rinaldi down to second and clinched the title.

They both went on to spend a season in the Superstock 1000 Cup where they finished fifth and sixth respectively before competing in European Superstock 1000 in 2017 where this time it was Rinaldi who took the title and relegated Razgatlioglu to the runner-up spot.

Competing in WorldSBK since 2018, they increasingly shape up to be the duel we will be watching for seasons to come. Misano simultaneously was a reminder of past stock seasons and a taster for what is still to come in the top class – and it sure is exciting!

Three-way fight rather than duel?

Razgatlioglu stood on the podium in seven of the nine races so far this season, a record of consistency and performance that is only matched by one Jonathan Rea – and Razgatlioglu outperformed the championship leader by 54 to 39 points at Misano.

Going into the campaign, the prevailing narrative has been Rea versus Scott Redding (Aruba.it – Racing Ducati) for the title, but this expectation overlooks Razgatlioglu as a major championship contender. Three rounds in and the young Turk in fact looks the mostly likely rider to stop Rea’s run.

Razgatlioglu’s biggest problem in the past was inconsistency that kept him from seriously challenging for the title. He now seems to be on top of this issue and his pace proves that the Yamaha is now an all-round package week in week out.

The championship gap is down to 20 points post Misano and the paddock heads to Donington Park next where Razgatlioglu stood on the podium twice with the Puccetti Kawasaki the last time they competed there in 2019.

“I’m not looking at [the championship standings] because I’m feeling stress. It’s the first time I’m very close to Johnny on points. I’m coming step by step, but we have many races and we will see.”

Toprak Razgatlioglu

HRC’s woes continue

The positive signs in the Honda WorldSBK camp at the previous round at Estoril swiftly faded on the Emilia-Romagna weekend. Both Team HRC riders Alvaro Bautista and Leon Haslam suffered with set-up and electronics problems that prevented them from achieving any meaningful result.

HRC went into the season confidently after strong pace in winter testing but have so far failed to live up to their own expectations. Misano was no exception as Bautista could not exceed a sixth place finish while Haslam was outside the top 10 in the first two races before crashing out of Race 2 on Sunday afternoon.

Honda suffer apparent struggles to solve the issues they have been carrying since the first race in Aragon. The Fireblade’s biggest problems are under braking on corner entry and the difficulties to find a set-up continue to cause headaches in the garage.

An upcoming test at the Circuito de Navarra promises hope for HRC but the Japanese manufacturer certainly has a lot of work left to do should they wish to return to former glory.

Vantaggio di casa

… which is the Italian for home advantage and Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) certainly made the most out of his at Misano. The Italian secured three top-seven finishes when he took the Panigale V4 R to the World Circuit Marco Simoncelli for the first time competitively.

Bassani tested at the track back in March where he already showed impressive pace and went into the race weekend with confidence.

The 21-year-old battled with – and beat – the likes of Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Bautista, more than doubling his points tally so far this season.

His veteran Ducati colleague Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven) sits only 10 points ahead of him on the championship table after a weekend to forget that saw the Welshman record his first non-score round since Imola 2015.

“I’m so happy about Race 2, but the start was so bad! I started sixth and on the first lap I was 12^th so lap-by-lap I tried to overtake the other riders and in the last lap, I had a very beautiful battle with Bautista and I’m so happy to finish seventh.”

Axel Bassani