Nürburgring: Schrötter applies the pressure, but Smits has the answers and wins

A brilliant blue sky awaited the 16 Euro Moto Superbike riders at the first race at the Nürburgring. Twan Smits of Team Apreco had arrived in the Eifel on a real high following his double victory at the last race in Assen. With a time of 1:22.936, he secured pole position in convincing fashion. His Yamaha team responded to his minor slip-up on Saturday with the light-hearted comment: “That’s what happens when you don’t realise you’ve already broken the record.”

Alongside Smits on the front row were Lukas Tulovic and Marcel Schrötter. The resurgent Jan-Ole Jähnig, Leon Orgis and Markus Reiterberger lined up in row 2. Row 3 went to Kevin Orgis, Florian Alt and Toni Finsterbusch. All had fitted the Pirelli SCX rear tyre.

Non-stop battles

Heading towards the Mercedes Arena, Schrötter held his position the longest, but in the melee Twan Smits took the lead. For Reiterberger, the race had begun with a spectacular wheelie; the Bavarian then braked hard to overtake Leon Orgis and move into fourth place. After just a few laps, Lukas Tulovic set his sights on Schrötter and set about catching Smits, who had pulled a second clear. But Schrötter wasn’t having any of it, and his counter-attack followed shortly afterwards. ‘Thanks a lot,’ Reiterberger must have thought as he watched the spectacle, closing in on the brawlers with Orgis in tow.

Marcel Schrötter lässt nicht locker

Foto: Thorsten Horn

All the way down to 7th place, occupied by Jan-Ole Jähnig, everyone was lapping in the 1:23s. But there was also a bit of a ruckus in the chasing pack. Leon Orgis crashed, Toni Finsterbusch had to brake hard, and the order was reshuffled. This action had widened the gap to the leaders to three seconds. At the front, Schrötter had broken clear, shaken off Tulovic and reduced the gap to Smits to a manageable 0.5 minutes. The Bavarian had no other option if he wanted to put up any resistance against defending champion Tulovic in the points table ahead of the final. Tulovic let the two at the front get on with it and did his own thing, whilst Reiterberger completed his lap a second behind him.

A brisk sprint

But Reiterberger hadn’t given up on his hopes of a trophy just yet and was closing in on the Ducati, tenths of a second at a time. Schrötter was applying plenty of pressure at the front, but Smits always found a way to respond. Honda rider Florian Alt, in eighth place, was unable to get involved in the battle at the front. Hannes Soomer, too, was not yet back to 100 per cent in ninth place following his long injury lay-off.

For the final sprint, the pairs Smits-Schrötter and Tulovic-Reiterberger were neck and neck. Reiterberger was actually faster than the leading Smits. The final laps turned into a real thriller. However, Schrötter wasn’t really within striking distance in the end, whilst Reiterberger braked a little too optimistically at the end of the home straight and once again undid all his hard work.

Lukas Tulovic wehrt sich

Foto: Thorsten Horn

Smits didn’t let the victory slip from his grasp and secured his third consecutive win. Marcel Schrötter was unable to mount another attack and had to settle for second place. Reiterberger threw everything he had at it, but Tulovic navigated the final corners with precision and crossed the finish line in third place, a tenth of a second ahead of Reiterberger.