Andrea Locatelli won the second race of the Superbike World Championship in Assen, in a dramatic turn of events for the championship leader, Nicolò Bulega. Defending champion Toprak Razgatlioglu also endured a difficult afternoon.
The pole position belonged to Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW), who lost the lead to Álvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) in the first corner. Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha) slotted into third, while Andrea Iannone (Pata GoEleven/Ducati) made a phenomenal start that brought him up to fifth. Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) was in tenth.
At the start of the second lap, Gardner overtook Razgatlioglu… who also lost a position to Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha). With 19 laps to go, Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS/Ducati) had already climbed to fifth.
Not settling for second, Gardner began closing in on Bautista, who wasn’t able to pull away in the lead. Meanwhile, Bulega continued his recovery and, after five laps, was already in fifth place… overtaking Razgatlioglu on the very next lap. The Turk continued to lose ground, this time to Sam Lowes.
— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) April 13, 2025
@nbulega is through in Turn 6
#DutchWorldSBK
pic.twitter.com/XnkLS3Njep
With Bulega now in third after swapping places with Gardner, Bautista was overtaken by Locatelli on lap eight… and immediately after by Bulega. The championship leader took over the race lead on lap ten. Only two laps later did Bautista reclaim a podium position by overtaking Gardner. Meanwhile, Razgatlioglu had dropped to seventh.
Once in front, Bulega started to pull away, and from then on, his rivals had no answer on track… but with just two laps to go, he was forced to retire with technical issues – just as had happened earlier in the Superpole race. Locatelli inherited the lead.
UNBELIEVABLE!
— WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) April 13, 2025
Another mechanical failure for @nbulega as he was leading the race!#DutchWorldSBK
From then on, the Yamaha rider had more than two seconds to manage and secured his first victory of the season. Bautista finished second, with Gardner in third, placing two YZF-R1s on the podium. Sam Lowes was fourth, with Axel Bassani (bimota by KRT) in fifth ahead of teammate Alex Lowes… who overtook Razgatlioglu on the penultimate lap. The Turk was also overtaken by Iker Lecuona (Honda HRC), ending up in eighth.
