Misano WSBK: Razgatlioglu clinches first Yamaha win of 2021

Starting second on the grid, Razgatlioglu first attempted to pass polesitter Rinaldi at Turn 4 on the opening lap, only to run wide and allow an opportunistic Jonathan Rea to pass both of them in one move.

However, six-time champion Rea didn’t have the pace to head the pack on his factory Kawasaki, with first Rinaldi dispatching him at Turn 8 on lap 3 and Razgatlioglu then following the Italian on the next tour at the same corner.

From there on Razgatlioglu kept the pressure up on Rinaldi as the two engaged in a straight duel for victory, finally making the decisive move on lap 9 going into Turn 14, the slowest corner on the track.

Rinaldi tried to fight back with seven laps to run in the race, but the Turkish rider upped his own pace to bring the gap back up to one second and prevent any chances of a late attack.

This marked Razgatlioglu’s first WSBK win since his pair of successes in the Portimao finale last year, ending the duopoly of Kawasaki and Ducati in 2021.

Rea finished third on the lead Kawasaki behind Rinaldi, missing out on a win for the first time in any round this season, but he actually extended his points advantage as his chief rival Scott Redding (Ducati) again finished outside the podium in fourth.

GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff earned the honour of the top independent rider after passing the factory Kawasaki of Alex Lowes with less than a handful of laps to run, with Axel Bassani also impressing on the Motocorsa Ducati to bag a seventh place finish.

Alvaro Bautista could only manage eighth on the Honda, with Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli and BMW rider Michael van der Mark completing the top 10.

Van der Mark’s teammate Tom Sykes slipped from seventh at the start to finish a disappointing 12th, behind the Puccetti Kawasaki of Lucas Mahias. Kohta Nozane (GRT), Tito Rabat (Barni Ducati) and Eugene Laverty (RC Squadra Corsa BMW) were the last of the points scorers.

Chaz Davies’ miserable weekend continued as he was forced to pull into the pits with a reported mechanical problem on his GoEleven Ducati, having crashed out of the previous two races at Misano.

Race 2 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	54	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	21
2	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	21	1.286
3	1	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	21	2.987
4	45	Scott Redding	Ducati	21	9.102
5	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	21	10.695
6	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	21	13.117
7	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	21	17.621
8	19	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	21	17.893
9	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	21	22.458
10	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	21	25.118
11	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	21	27.107
12	66	Tom Sykes	BMW	21	28.353
13	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	21	33.391
14	53	Tito Rabat	Ducati	21	38.817
15	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	21	41.262
16	94	Jonas Folger	BMW	21	43.046
17	32	Isaac Viñales	Kawasaki	21	53.844
18	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	21	1'00.109
19	76	Samuele Cavalieri	Kawasaki	21	1'11.934
20	84	Loris Cresson	Kawasaki	21	1'23.648
	7	Chaz Davies	Ducati	4
	91	Leon Haslam	Honda	3
View full results