WorldSBK: Toprak Razgatlioglu Wins Race One at Portimao

Toprak Razgatlioglu secured a crucial victory in a shortened opening race of the weekend at Portimao to keep his Championship hopes alive!

After a dramatic end to the Superpole qualifying session Jonathan Rea set a new lap record which secured him pole position. The other Championship contenders Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista qualified second and fourth on the grid. The rider who joined Rea and Razgatlioglu on the front row is fellow Kawasaki Racing Team rider, Alex Lowes.

When the lights went out it was Rea who grabbed the holeshot and fired his Kawasaki into the lead. Lowes backed up his teammate as he battled with Razgatlioglu to secure a Kawasaki 1-2 on the opening lap. The Championship leader Bautista dropped to fifth after a poor start to the race.

Lowes had a poor second lap, he dropped from second to fifth as Razgatlioglu, Bassani and Bautista passed the British rider.

Razgatlioglu set a new race lap record on lap three and began to pull back in Rea. A Rea vs Razgatlioglu battle at Portimao seemed to be on the cards once again…

Lap six saw the first change of the lead as Razgatlioglu slid under Rea into turn one, forcing the six time World Champion out wide. The Ducati duo of Bassani and Bautista were battling it out behind the leaders for third. The start of lap seven witnessed Bautista finally pass Bassani for third.

With six laps to go Lowes seemed to have regrouped and was all over the back of Bassani in fourth. Bautista was looming large in third place as he had launched himself up to the back of Rea and Razgatlioglu.

Bautista passed Rea into turn one on his red missile with four laps to go. However, Bautista could not stop his bike and let Rea back through. During the battle for second Razgatlioglu was clearing out in the lead!

A lap later Bautista made a move on Rea into turn one once again and this time made the move stick. Bautista had three laps to pull in a 1.5 second gap on Razgatlioglu if he wanted to battle for the win.

Alex Lowes made the move for fourth at the start of the penultimate lap. But Bassani was not making it easy for Lowes as he slotted back into fourth just two corners later!

On the final lap of the race the factory BMW rider, Scott Redding, crashed out of seventh place! He did rejoin and finished in a disappointing 18th place.

Razgatlioglu was the first rider to take the chequered flag this weekend as he won the opening race! Bautista finished in a good second place, with Rea behind him in third place.

Image credits to worldsbk.com