Toprak Razgatlioglu dominated WorldSBK Race 1 to add another race win to his name in 2024 at Estoril, winning by a distant nine seconds.
The BMW rider posted his first race victory since returning from his crash at Magny Cours in September and is now on the brink of becoming a two-time WorldSBK champion.
Nicolo Bulega and Iker Lecuona completed the podium after a race that consisted of multiple crashes from big-name riders.
Razgatlioglu lost his lead into Turn 1 as Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Locatelli made moves up his inside, with Jonathan Rea reclaiming his qualifying spot on the Turkish rider at the slow chicane.
Locatelli dive-bombed on Petrucci’s inside in Turn 1 on Lap 2 to snatch second. Razgatlioglu and Rea battled hard for the third spot as the Northern Irishman showed his best work with Yamaha since transferring over for this season.
Rea forced Bulega off the track when he moved up the inside on the exit of Turn 5 to demote the championship protagonist down to eighth behind the two Kawasaki riders and team-mate Bautista.
Razgatlioglu overtook Petrucci before taking the lead off Locatelli at the end of the straight.
Bautista and Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes forged their way through Petrucci and Rea to snatch third and fifth place, respectively on Lap 5.
However, on lap 6, both Rea and Bulega gained a place at Turn 1 because Lowes lost time from his exit line.
Ducati’s straight-line speed advantage was pivotal on Lap 7 with both Aruba.It Ducati riders lunged through on the inside of factory Yamaha riders Locatelli and Rea.
Still, Bautista again formed an impressive recovery ride from a challenging qualifying session that saw him start in 11th place.
That same Lap Axel Bassani crashed out of proceedings at the fast Turn 6, as Petrucci crashed himself at the following corner.
Honda’s Iker Lecuona announced himself into the race in the mid way stages and produced an intense yet quite remarkable Lap 8 battle with six-time champion Rea, with the pair swapping positions multiple times across the lap.
Both riders squabbled in hard-fought racing, but in the end, Lecuona won the battle, with Lowes once again in the mix and formulated a move himself on Rea.
Out front, Razgatlioglu sustained a clear advantage over the Ducati duo of Bautista and Bulega, but the 39-year-old gave everything to catch up to the BMW rider.
The Spaniard’s race was short-lived. He crashed out of second place, ending any glimmering hope of retaining his championship for the third time in as many years.
Locatelli crashed out himself a few Laps later from the podium spots, which promoted Honda’s Lecuona up to third place.
The latter stages saw the leading riders dispersed, but once again, Razgatlioglu’s dominance told the whole story with no rider able to compete with the Turkish rider.
Bulega recovered from eighth in the early stages to take second to ensure that Razgatlioglu couldn’t gain even more points on him heading into the two Sunday races.
Lecuona and Honda ended a two-year-long drought off the rostrum with the Japanese marque featuring on the podium for the first time since Assen in 2022.
Lowes finished fourth to catch up to Barni’s Petrucci in the championship standings, while his old team-mate Rea delivered an important fifth-place finish for Yamaha.
The in-form BMW rider of Garrett Gerloff recovered from 17th on the grid to finish 6th ahead of BMW Motorrad’s Michael van der Mark.
Xavi Vierge’s final position of eighth put both Honda riders inside the top ten, with Andrea Iannone and Tito Rabat completing the top ten. Kawasaki rider Rabat started the race in 23rd but was able to overtake 13 riders in 21 Laps to claim tenth.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi finished in 11th for the Motocorsa Ducati team, as the Italian edged out British riders Scott Redding and Sam Lowes.
Dominique Aegerter finished in a lacklustre 14th despite displaying consistent early-season form for Yamaha.
Portuguese rider Ivo Lopes closed out the final point-scoring position to earn a point at his home race weekend.
Discussion about this post