Back in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship paddock after his one/off debut season back in 2023, Lorenzo Baldassarri (Team GoEleven) has hit the ground running in his second season; now a quarter of the way into the campaign, ‘Balda’ took a second WorldSBK podium in the Motul Hungarian Round’s Tissot Superpole Race. He finished the weekend in eighth in the Championship, but he sits just four points out from fellow Italian Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team), also racing in his sophomore season in the Championship.

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR: The #34 led the Tissot Superpole Race before the red flag restart

Sending himself up to the first row of the grid for the first time in WorldSBK, ‘Balda’ saw lights out from P2; however, his hopes of a podium return ended early as he had a sluggish jump off the line to fall to P9 before a Turn 9 crash sent him back to the boxes early. His fortunes would turn on Sunday as he surged forward from his P2 start in the Tissot Superpole Race, even leading the race through Turn 2 of the opening lap prior to a crash involving Miguel Oliveira (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team), Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) and Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team), which brought out a red flag and restarted the race. After the restart, the #34 maintained his third place through the first lap and would go on to cruise onto the podium with Alvaro Bautista (Barni Spark Racing Team) a distant two seconds behind him for most of the race. His P3 marks his first podium this season since his bronze medal in the season’s opening race at Phillip Island.

Race 2 saw him lose one place to his fellow Italian sophomore rider Montella, shuffling him to fourth. His margin behind the 5 hung around two and a half seconds as the race approached the midpoint of its 21 laps, but in the final two thirds, ‘Balda’ made a run for the podium, setting a personal best of 1’39.055s on Lap 15, kicking off a mad dash to the line with only one lap above the 1’39.4s mark, helping him to narrow the margin to cross the line just a half second behind Montella.

On his Sunday, Baldassarri said: “It was our first podium in the Superpole Race. In Australia, we didn’t have the speed, so to reach the rostrum this time was very good. I was thinking a lot about Saturday’s bad crash. I couldn’t sleep, so to reach this result, having hardly slept, I was lucky, and I feel relieved. Race 2 was a bit more bitter, the team and I wanted another podium to confirm our pace and be fully happy after yesterday, but oh well, we can be happy too. It was a great race with a good rhythm for us. We finished just half a second back after recovering the entire race.

PODIUM PACE REASSURANCE: “It was great to confirm our speed of the whole weekend apart from Saturday’s crash”

The Italian knows that he and his platform have what it takes now after confirming their speed at a track such as Balaton Park, which prevents his Ducati from stretching its legs and taking advantage of its top-end power. He is determined to continue to demonstrate his pace and clamber onto the podium in the Czech round to come in order to improve his Championship standing and catch up to his fellow Italian sophomore, Yari Montella, currently well within striking distance, four points ahead in fifth.

On “It was very important for my team and for our confidence, especially before next weekend for sure. A fourth place is good to keep you focused, because you know you have to prepare as best as possible to reach the podium target next weekend. I think it will be good motivation for us, also it was great to confirm our speed of the whole weekend, apart from Saturday’s crash, but we were consistent in the top three to top four all weekend.”

Baldassarri’s battle with Montella will continue next round at Most, kicking off on May 15^th! Don’t miss a moment with the WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 30% off!