Sunday’s opening race for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship was won in style by Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) as the reigning Champion bounced back from his Race 1 retirement at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” to claim victory in the Tissot Superpole Race. It meant his 11-race drought in 2022 came to end as he won by two seconds.

FRONT ROW START FOR RACE 2: the top three in the Championship…

Razgatlioglu got the holeshot on the opening lap of the race and from there did not look back as he claimed his first race win of the season and secure a front row start for Race 2. He was able to take advantage of an early race scrap between Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) scrapping to open up a gap and was unchallenged throughout the race. Bautista came home in second place ahead of Rea, with the top three in the Championship making up the front row for Race 2. It meant Razgatlioglu claimed his 19^th career win and his 62^nd podium, while Bautista now has 38 podiums to his name and 11 consecutive podiums from the start of the season. Rea now has 225 podiums to his name while his third place means Kawasaki now have 499 podiums, just one away from a milestone 500.

STRONG RESULT FOR HONDA: starting Race 2 from row two

Both Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) and teammate Iker Lecuona used Pirelli’s new-for-2022 SCQ tyre to full advantage in the Superpole Race as they fought their way up the field. Vierge finished in fourth after looking like he was going to challenge Rea for a podium, although fourth is his best result in WorldSBK, with Lecuona in fifth place. They will be joined on the second row by Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK), with the Italian claiming his second sixth-place finish of the round.

BATTLING BACK: taking a third row start

Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) was able to battle his way up to seventh place to lead away the third row in Race 2, ahead of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) who lost ground at the start and was unable to fight his way back up the order. Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK) will start Race 2 from ninth place, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati), a podium finisher in Race 1, finishing outside of the top nine after losing ground during the 10-lap race.

The top nine following the Tissot Superpole Race, full results here:

1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) 1’33.770s

2. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +2.087s

3. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +4.975s

4. Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) +5.903s

5. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) +7.197s

6. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +8.476s

7. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa) +8.749s

8. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +9.383s

9. Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +9.566

Fastest lap: Toprak Razgatlioglu, Yamaha – 1’33.722 (New Lap Record)

Watch Race 2 LIVE and UNINTERRUPTED from Misano at 15:15 Local Time (GMT+2) using the WorldSBK VideoPass!