The 2024 MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship heads to the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto for the final round of an enthralling campaign. The Prometeon Spanish Round concludes an epic 2024 season with the title still to be decided, and the fighting talk from the title contenders got underway on Thursday.
Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team): “In 2021, I had the same… P3 is enough for me, but I’m always looking for P1”
Speaking ahead of a round where he’s aiming to be crowned Champion for a second time, Razgatlioglu said: “I’m feeling good because we come back to Jerez again. Last year, I lost the race in the last corner. It’ll be completely different this year on the BMW. My target is to win the race. A 46-point margin is a really big gap. If I finish the race in P2 or P3, I’ll win the Championship. I know this, but still my target is to win the race. In 2021, I had the same. P3 is also enough for me, but I’m always looking for P1. I hope we get this because it’s important for me. When I signed for BMW, everyone said I’m crazy many times but now everyone’s started to believe in BMW and me. This is the final round and we’ve almost got the title. I hope we’re World Champions. It’s been an incredible season for me to ride the BMW and nobody believed me. First year and we could be World Champion, this is incredible for my career and also for BMW because they’ve never been World Champions on two wheels.”
Speaking light-heartedly about sharing a birthday with title rival Bulega plus former teammate Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha), Razgatlioglu said: “We didn’t celebrate together, and not also Bulega… he was born in 1999, me in 1996, but Locatelli has the same birthday as me! Everything is the same, we just need to check the time. It’s not just Bulega and Locatelli, also Casey Stoner and Charles Leclerc. It’s just a birthday, we’re getting older… I’m not happy!”
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati): “Toprak’s a Champion, Alvaro a two-time Champion. To be in the middle of them in my first year, it’s fantastic”
A title contender at the final round in his rookie season, Bulega spoke about how ‘proud’ he is of his 2024: “It’s incredible, I’m really happy because we come here from a strong weekend at Estoril. I have a good feeling with my bike and Jerez is a track I like a lot, one of my favourites, so I will try to do my best. It’s very difficult but I think I have to try to fight for the win, especially because I need extra motivation for next year. It’s a surprise for me, to be here at the last round and I can say I’m still fighting for the Championship. I never had this in my head when I signed this contract, or when I won the first race. I’m very proud. It’s incredible. It’s my first year and I’m fighting with a lot of Champion sand guys who’ve been here a long time. Toprak’s a World Champion, Alvaro a two-time World Champion. To be in the middle of them in my first year, it’s fantastic.”
Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven): “I wanted to remain in this paddock… the racing here is amazing!”
Fresh off the back of securing his future, Iannone said: “It’s good news for me and also for the team. This was my priority, I wanted to remain in this paddock. The racing here is amazing. I think it’s the best choice for me for next year and we’ll try to improve things compared to this year. Next year, we’ll have more potential. My management worked to improve the level a bit. I think we gave a bit more support from Ducati. My target for next year is to improve everything a little bit, we have everything to be stronger. I always want to improve, always be on the podium, but it’s not easy. My dream is to fight for the first position in every race or the podium. It isn’t easy, the level is really high here. I’m confident. In Race 2 at Estoril, I enjoyed it a lot; it was unbelievable, completely crazy. I really enjoyed, for the first time this year, the feeling with the bike like this. It was for eighth position, but we fought for fifth.”
Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati): “There’s nothing I can do… if we can fight for victory, it’ll be nice”
Previewing his home round, Bautista spoke about potentially helping Bulega and his desire to win again: “have really good memories of here. I took my first win in 125cc here in 2006, and last year, we won the title in WorldSBK. In the past, I was at the final round with title chances, but I was in a different position. I was leading by a lot of points, and it was easy to get the title. For Nicolo, it’s a different situation. It’s his first year in WorldSBK and he’s second in the Championship with a big points difference. It doesn’t all depend on him; it depends on Toprak’s results. He has to be proud because, in his first year, he got to the last round with some chances. On Saturday, if nothing strange happens, the difference will be too big, and Toprak could be Champion. Here, I can’t help Bulega. At Estoril, I could help to not take off more points from Nicolo. Here, I can’t. In the same situation as Estoril, I can attack Nicolo because, even if he’s second, he has less chance of the title. There’s nothing I can do. If we can fight for the victory, it’ll be nice. If not, I’ll be happy without it if I can do my best in all races.”
Iker Lecuona (Team HRC): “We started from zero… we finished the year with a good base, so we’ll start next year from that base”
Back on the rostrum at Estoril, Lecuona is aiming to end 2024 on a high: “I’m really happy after the first podium after the season and second in WorldSBK. After all the injuries, all the work at home and at the track, we’re happy to have that result. I always said during these years that this is one of the worst tracks for us, or one I struggle at more during the last two years. It looks like we’re quite fast. I think from the summer, we did a good job on the bike; the pace was improving during the weekends. My strategy with my crew chief, the feeling on the bike, everything we improved a lot. When we started this year, I had a lot of injuries, but we also didn’t have a clear base on the bike. We started from zero. This year, we finished the year with a good base, so we’ll start next year from that base that is performing quite well.”
Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha): “Most challenging season of my whole career… expecting to take a good step forward in 2025”
A tricky season for Rea concludes at Jerez, with the six-time Champion saying: “I’m looking forward to the weekend. Parts of me are really excited about Jerez and trying to cap off the season in a good way, and then a part of me that wants to completely forget about this disappointing and challenging season as a whole and re-focus for ’25. It’s nice because we’re coming from a good weekend at Estoril. From what I understand, the base setup we have now is very similar to when first rode the bike last year in November. With all the changes we’ve made, we’ve come back to a happy base setting. I feel like I’m more optimistic going into here than I was going into Estoril, but in the end, Estoril turned out to be a positive one. In all honesty, when I first rode the Yamaha, I loved the feeling of the bike. It wasn’t a full grid at the test, but I still felt quite fast. I couldn’t imagine this being the most difficult season of my whole career. We know it’s challenging times, but I really feel better days are coming. I know Yamaha are working really hard in the background to improve the bike in all different aspects. I feel there’s reasons to be optimistic that we can be more competitive next year. It’s just piecing all the bits together, all the marginal gains. I’ll work on myself, trying to improve, because I don’t feel the team, or the bike are getting my full potential right now.”
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK): “It feels like this season’s gone really quickly!”
The last weekend for Kawasaki in their current form, before morphing into Bimota by KRT with Alex Lowes saying: “It feels like this season’s gone really quickly, every year goes quickly but there’s been a few changes inside the garage for me, working with Pere and the crew, and it seems like yesterday we started working together. It’ll be an emotional weekend because Kawasaki green has been so famous in WorldSBK for the last 15 years, especially with some fantastic results with Jonny and Tom. Multiple World Champions, not just Riders’ but Teams’ and Manufacturers’. A shame, personally, to be the last weekend in green but we have a new challenge; we’re staying together, it’s just a different challenge. I have a lot of good memories at Phillip Island. My first race for Kawasaki in 2020 was good, and this year, my first race with Pere and the guys was good.”
Garrett Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW): “It’s going to be emotional… excited for the change, happy I have the memories I have”
Gerloff’s last weekend as a BMW rider is here and he said: “I’m happy with how we’ve been able to recover this year and how the second half of the season’s been going, and the results I’ve had, and the team’s had. I’m pretty content. We should’ve started the year like we are now and that’s a shame. It’s super emotional. I was so happy I was given the opportunity to come to Bonovo two years ago. The team and I have clicked so much. We have such a good team dynamic. It’s going to be really difficult to leave that behind because literally, in one night, everything changes from Sunday to Monday. It’s going to be emotional. I’m excited for the change and I’m happy I have the memories I have. A podium would be amazing, it’s what I’m always pushing for; to at least be in the top three. I don’t think it’s going to be super easy as it’s Jerez and everyone knows this track super well from testing.”
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Source: WorldSBK.com