The Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK arrived at Donington with the hope of repeating what happened last year at the British weekend. In 2022 Razgatlioglu scored three wins between long races and Superpole races. This season Toprak has only won the short race in Indonesia at Mandalika, but there is a desire for more success before he leaves the Japanese manufacturer at the end of the season.
Friday with mixed conditions shuffled the cards. The 2021 World Champion remained in the top positions throughout the two sessions with a second and a first place. Locatelli on the other hand was ninth in the morning and delayed in the afternoon due to rain.
On Saturday for Superpole Toprak fought hard, but the front row narrowly escaped him. The #54 rider finished fourth in 1.26.410. Loca instead finished seventh, opening the third row, with a time of 1.26.510.
In Race 1 Razgatlioglu got off to a good start and moved into third place. Having passed Petrucci at the start, the Turkish rider went in pursuit of Rea and Bautista with whom he battled for almost the entire first part of the race. Once in second position behind Bautista he tried to stop the Spaniard's pace, but only managed it for a few laps, until the reigning World Champion decided to run away. In the end Toprak took another second place, moving up from fourth on the grid. Locatelli in clear recovery from the last races finished fifth overall, re-entering the top five after two rounds of absence.
Sunday started with the Superpole Race. Toprak managed to put himself with the leaders right from the start and take the lead. In the final laps a real three-way battle for victory took place. In the end Razgatlioglu managed to get the better of Bautista and Rea, thus interrupting the sequence of victories of the Ducati rider and returning to victory in the short race after the one at the beginning of the year at the Mandalika circuit. Locatelli also performed well. The rider from Bergamo stayed with the leaders for most of the race, but then gave up a little at the end, a drop that cost him the fight for the podium, but he still managed to finish fourth.
With the success in the morning Toprak started first in Race 2 and managed to keep the lead, even after the restart due to a red flag shown after a few corners. The Turkish rider remained in the lead trying to defend the position at all costs from Bautista's attacks. Towards the middle of the race the Spaniard managed to engage the Yamaha rider, who eventually brought home a very good second place, completing a weekend always on the podium. Locatelli showed some more difficulty than in the morning and after a close battle in the middle of the group he finished eighth, just 1.4 seconds behind fourth place.
Next round is at Imola, for the return of the series-derived World Championship at the Romagna track. The last time SBK stopped there was in 2019.