Portimao WSBK: Razgatlioglu beats Bautista in shortened Race 1

The first of three races at the Portuguese venue ran to just 14 laps and started more than an hour later than scheduled following a heavy crash for WSP300 rider Victor Steeman. The Dutch rider was taken to the hospital after being diagnosed with polytrauma and head injuries, with the incident impacting the entire day's schedule.

When the action did get underway in the flagship WSBK category, polesitter Jonathan Rea held on to the lead from pole position, with Alex Lowes moving up to second ahead of Razgatlioglu to establish an early Kawasaki 1-2.

However, Lowes’ place near the front of the pack proved to be short-lived as he soon tumbled to fifth, leaving Razgatlioglu free to chase after Rea for victory.

It took the Turkish rider until lap 6 to make the race-winning pass, the 25-year-old sending his Yamaha down the inside of Rea in a brilliant move at Turn 1.

From there on, Razgatlioglu had a relatively easy run to the chequered flag as he chalked up his ninth win of the season and first since the Magny-Cours round in early September.

Second position eventually went to championship leader Alvaro Bautista, who was able to guide his Ducati past the satellite Motocorsa Racing Panigale V4 R of Axel Bassani after a slow start and then make the pass on Rea for second with three laps to go

Rea had to settle for third after starting from pole position, extending his winless streak to 16 races stretching all the way back to the Estoril round in May.

Bassani was fourth at the finish after fighting for a spot on the podium early in the race, but he did beat the factory Kawasaki of Lowes as he continued his recent run of strong results.

Andrea Locatelli was sixth on the works Yamaha, ahead of Ducati’s Michael Ruben Rinaldi and the top Honda of Xavi Vierge.

Bonovo BMW rider Loris Baz wasn’t able to capitalise on a strong qualifying result as he slipped to ninth at the finish, ahead of GRT Yamaha’s Garrett Gerloff.

Scott Redding was running inside the top 10 until he crashed on the final lap, leaving him 18th in the final classification - four places behind the other works BMW of Michael van der Mark.

Portimao WSBK - Race 1 results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	1	Toprak Razgatlioglu	Yamaha	14
2	19	Alvaro Bautista	Ducati	14	0.657
3	65	Jonathan Rea	Kawasaki	14	3.032
4	47	Axel Bassani	Ducati	14	4.471
5	22	Alex Lowes	Kawasaki	14	4.562
6	55	Andrea Locatelli	Yamaha	14	8.805
7	21	Michael Ruben Rinaldi	Ducati	14	12.614
8	97	Xavi Vierge	Honda	14	17.290
9	76	Loris Baz	BMW	14	17.450
10	31	Garrett Gerloff	Yamaha	14	17.719
11	7	Iker Lecuona	Honda	14	21.391
12	5	Philipp Oettli	Ducati	14	21.628
13	44	Lucas Mahias	Kawasaki	14	22.972
14	60	Michael van der Mark	BMW	14	25.808
15	50	Eugene Laverty	BMW	14	29.879
16	2	Roberto Tamburini	Yamaha	14	30.268
17	29	Luca Bernardi	Ducati	14	30.919
18	45	Scott Redding	BMW	14	33.785
19	33	Jake Gagne	Yamaha	14	34.173
20	3	Kohta Nozane	Yamaha	14	38.133
21	17	Marvin Fritz	Yamaha	14	39.000
22	23	Christophe Ponsson	Yamaha	14	41.101
23	36	Leandro Mercado	Honda	14	47.660
24	52	Oliver Konig	Kawasaki	14	1'01.760
	91	Leon Haslam	Kawasaki	7
	35	Hafizh Syahrin	Honda	2
View full results