The 2025 Superbike World Cup seemed reserved to a hand -to -hand duel between Nicolo Bulega and Toprak Razgatlioglu, and everything seemed to indicate that in Assen it could be more of the same. But the careers are unpredictable, complicated and the regulatory changes that limited in BMW and Ducati performance could make things change.
In addition, Assen looked like a track that could favor this change in roles or, if not as much as that, yes that the rest of the pilots could approach the two “coconuts” of the category. Because there was no doubt before arriving is that Bulega and Toprak are the fastest, so everyone expected that change.
Carrera 1: Bulleta, from afar, the fastest
But when the traffic light of race 1 went out, it was clear that nothing had changed. Bulega, who started second after Sam Lowes, soon put himself in front and began to crush his rivals to open a hole in front of an Andrea Locatelli who had to worry about not losing Bulleta’s wheel to fight with Toprak Razgatlioglu.
While Bulega was scaled, Bautista took Sam Lowes ahead, and falls like Iannone or Montela were happening, things began to complicate a toprak who thought about being able to attack his main rival had to give his best version when he ran out of rear tire.
After losing the second position at the hands of Locatelli, then he had no choice but to give in to the thrust of Danilo Petrucci, who finally completed the podium behind the two Italians. Toprak ended fourth with Lecuona and Vierge getting a great fifth and sixth place with La Honda after fighting with Aegerter, Gardner and an Axel Bassani that went to the ground on the last lap.
Overpole Race: Razgatlioglu dances on water in Assen and Bulega shipwrecked by breakdown
Sunday dawned with water and Toprak went out for all in the superpole Race. So much so that although Bulega started putting himself in front, in the second round the Turk was put in front to get a victory that ended up arriving although without fighting until the end with Bulega.
And it is that with the Italian minimizing the loss of point, S came the breakdown of his panigale and had to retire in the absence of three laps for the end. That situation was taken advantage of by Sam Lowes to compensate for the incident of the previous day with Bautista, and both ended up climbing to the podium ahead of a locatelli that was not so competitive with the wet asphalt.
Van der Mark, Redding, Garnder, Montella and Mackenzie completed the positions that are entitled to point in this race that, in turn, decided the grill order of race 2.
Carrera 2: Locatelli does not fail, the Ducati de Bulega yes
Due to the mechanical problem of the superpole Race, Bulega came out in the tenth position and that gave a chance to the rest of power. But the state in which Bulega is so impressive that he only needed eight laps to reach the podium position, and nine to place second, and in the return 11 of the race he has already passed as a leader.
From there he began to escape from a Andrea Locatelli who continued to demonstrate that, at least in Assen, the Yamaha R1 works. But this was definitely not Nicolo’s weekend and when only two laps left for the end and had the victory in his hands, the Panigale was stopped again at the despair of the Italian.
It was another Italian, Locatelli, who took the opportunity to put his first victory in the WSBK in front of Álvaro Bautista, second, and Remy Gardner again, confirmed that the R1 worked well in the Dutch route. Sam Lowes, in which he has been one of his best weekends in the championship, ended up in the fourth position ahead of the two Bimota pilots. And it is that Axel Bassani and Alex Lowes achieved the fifth and sixth position.
Iker Lecuona, seventh, was the best of the Spaniards and crossed a finish line ahead of a racatlioglu toprak that once again suffered problems with the tires and could not optimize the abandonment of Bulega. Iannone and Aegerter completed the TOP10.
Now, the WSBK is directed to Italy where the Cremona circuit will host the fourth round of the season within three weekends, from May 2 to 4.
