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Magny-Cours WSBK: Razgatlioglu beats Rea for second win

Toprak Razgatlioglu once again beat Kawasaki counterpart Jonathan Rea in France, after charging through from 16th to take victory in the 10-lap World Superbike Superpole race.

Toprak Razgatlioglu, Turkish Puccetti Racing, Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team

Toprak Razgatlioglu, Turkish Puccetti Racing, Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The Puccetti rider made history on Saturday when he came through from 16th in the first feature race to beat Rea in a thrilling last-lap battle to secure his maiden win and the first for a Turkish rider in WSBK.

Once more having to start from 16th after a tough wet qualifying, Razgatlioglu had carved his way up to eighth by the end of the first lap, while Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark grabbed the lead from poleman Rea off the line.

Rea tried to squeeze van der Mark on his way around the outside of the Adelaide hairpin on lap two, but couldn’t make the move stick, while Razgatlioglu found his way to fifth.

Van der Mark was overhauled by Rea moments later at the Imola chicane, but was unable to break away from a lead group which stood at eight riders at the start of lap three.

By lap five, Razgatlioglu had worked his way onto the rear of van der Mark and managed to successfully execute a pass into Adelaide, and began the hunt for Rea.

Rea’s lead stood at close to half a second as Razgatlioglu navigated his way past van der Mark, but this was quickly wiped out by the customer Kawasaki rider.

Razgatlioglu put Rea under siege as they started the seventh tour, and nailed his run out of Estoril and through the Golf kink to out-brake Rea into Adelaide.

Rea feinted a couple of attempts at Adelaide over the next couple of tours, and looked like he might have nailed the pass at the same corner on the final lap.

But he ran in too deep and allowed Razgatlioglu to cut back through, with the Puccetti rider coming under no further threat through to the chequered flag.

Van der Mark held onto third to make up for his crash from the lead in race one, with the Ducati duo of Chaz Davies and Alvaro Bautista – who started 14th – completing the top five.

Alex Lowes crossed the line sixth on the sister works Yamaha, ahead of Ten Kate’s Loris Baz, the BMW of Tom Sykes, with Leon Haslam (KRT) taking the final point in ninth.

Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari crashed on lap six, but remounted to finish last of the 20 runners.

Rea heads into the final race of the weekend with a 104-point lead over Bautista, meaning he needs to outscore the Ducati rider by 21 points to clinch the title.

Razgatlioglu’s victory puts him on pole for the second feature race later on Sunday.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Kawasaki 21
2 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 21 0.240
3 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 21 6.839
4 76 France Loris Baz
Yamaha 21 8.497
5 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Ducati 21 9.368
6 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Yamaha 21 15.129
7 2 United Kingdom Leon Camier
Honda 21 25.067
8 33 Italy Marco Melandri
Yamaha 21 26.869
9 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty
Ducati 21 32.091
10 11 Germany Sandro Cortese
Yamaha 21 32.823
11 81 Spain Jordi Torres
Kawasaki 21 35.409
12 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Kawasaki 21 41.945
13 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
Yamaha 21 46.640
14 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 21 1'03.136
15 52 Italy Alessandro Del Bianco
Honda 21 1'07.315
16 28 Germany Markus Reiterberger
BMW 21 1'07.679
17 20 France Sylvain Barrier
Ducati 21 1'08.30
18 23 Japan Ryuichi Kiyonari
Honda 21 1'11.449
91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Kawasaki 16
7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 4

 

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