MRW Issue 27

NEWS DESK
Bautista and the Panigale V4 R was after the
Spaniard’s return to the Italian manufacturer.
Although Yamaha and Razgatlioglu were
able to run Bautista close throughout the
season, Bautista wrapped up the title with
a round to spare in Indonesia to become
the third different Champion from a third
different manufacturer in three seasons.
Looking back on the key moments of
2022, Denning said: “What needs to be
acknowledged is that the Bautista-Ducati
package and the level that Jonathan and
Kawasaki got to this year was far, far higher
2022 IN REVIEW:
Yamaha World Superbike
After taking the MOTUL FIM Superbike
World Championship crown in 2021,
Yamaha and the Pata Yamaha with Brixx
WorldSBK squad were once again in the
title fight in 2022 but had to settle for
second place with Toprak Razgatlioglu
(Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) in the
Riders’ Championship after a hard-fought
campaign. After the season ended, Team
Manager Paul Denning looked back on the
2022 campaign for both Razgatlioglu and
teammate Andrea Locatelli who ended his
second campaign in WorldSBK in fifth place.
Razgatlioglu ended the 2022 campaign with
14 wins and 29 podiums to finish in second
place, taking one more win than in his titlewinning
campaign and the same number
of podiums. After taking his first win of the
season at Misano, Razgatlioglu won 14 of
the next 25 races to haul himself into title
contention, but a Race 1 crash at San Juan
allowed Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing –
Ducati) to pull further clear of Razgatlioglu
in the standings.
Reflecting on Yamaha’s 2022 season,
Denning said: “We won 13 races last
year with Toprak and 14 this year. As
it’s turned out this year, with Alvaro
making one mistake in the whole
season which was Donington when
he tucked the front and had a DNF, as
a team, as a rider, you just had to be
perfect everywhere. Not being perfect
cost us the chance to bring the fight
to Phillip Island. Alvaro deserves the
Championship. The bottom line is we
didn’t quite have enough to win the
title but, by any other measure, it was a
very successful season.”
Denning also looked back on the
season as a whole and how much of a
formidable package the combination of