The Phillip Island Circuit in Australia has staged the first Superpole session and first race of the 2025 WorldSBK season.
Yesterday saw the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team riders, the experienced Tito Rabat and category rookie Bahattin Sofuoglu, carried out two free practice sessions in preparation for today, while this morning they were out for Superpole, which established the grid for the subsequent Race 1 and ran on a dry track in very high temperatures, which made the riders job difficult.
Sofuoglu stopped the clock on 1’30”901 to classify eighteenth. Twentieth for Rabat, who put in a 1’31”202.
With these results, the young Turkish rider lined up on row six of the grid, while the Spaniard was on row seven, in a race that ran in the afternoon over a distance of 20 laps, with a mandatory tyre change to be executed within lap eleven.
Both riders started strong and immediately made up places. Unfortunately, during the course of lap seven, Tito Rabat was forced to retire due to a technical problem. Bahattin Sofuoglu maintained a consistently fast pace, carried out the tyre change on lap eleven and crossed the line in fourteenth place, thus scoring his first world championship points.
Tomorrow the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK riders will take on the Superpole Race and Race 2.
"Highs and lows for us in the first race of the season. A technical problem prevented Rabat from expressing his true potential, and that of the bike, while fourteenth place for Sofuoglu, in his first race in the category, is motivation for him and our entire team”.
“We unfortunately had a technical problem that prevented us from doing well in Superpole and then forced us to retire from the race. A pity, because the team has worked hard and I gave it my all, but we still have work to do in order to be competitive and express our full potential. I’m sure that our technicians will be able to solve the problem and so I’m confident for tomorrow’s races.”
“Scoring points in my debut Superbike race was the goal for me and the team and so I’m happy we did that. I was cautious over the first laps, studying my rivals and trying to conserve the tyres. As soon as I felt I had more confidence with the bike, I made a few passes and then came onto pit lane for the tyre change. We weren’t perfect in terms of the tyre change and we need to improve for tomorrow’s second race. Once back on track, the bike seemed twitchier but I was able to maintain my pace and finish fourteenth in the end.”
