Under immense pressure throughout the Tissot Superpole Race in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) took a stunning victory at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve for the Pirelli Portuguese Round. The battle lasted all ten laps during the race with Razgatlioglu winning by just 0.123s ahead of Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) at the end of the race.

RAZGATLIOGLU VS BAUTISTA: the top two fight it out

Razgatlioglu took the holeshot at the start of the race to move into the lead of the race but was under constant pressure from Championship leader Bautista, who moved from fourth to second at the start of the race. Bautista looked to move past Razgatlioglu on every lap, using the Ducati power down the pit straight, but Razgatlioglu resisted this into the Turn 1 braking zone to hold on for victory by just 0.123s. Six-time Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) had initially been in the fight for victory but dropped back as the race progressed, finishing in third place and more than a second back from Bautista. It means the front row for Race 2 will be made up of Razgatlioglu, Bautista and Rea.

ON THE SECOND ROW: a prime seat for the podium scrap

Rea finished just half-a-second clear of teammate Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) with Lowes in fourth place, meaning he will start from the second row of the grid. Lowes will be joined on that row by Italian duo Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) and Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) as they look to fight their way into the podium scrap in Race 2.

STARTING RACE 2 FROM THE THIRD ROW: only just missing out…

Bassani was involved in a fierce battle with Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) at the end of the race, with Locatelli missing out on sixth place by just 0.098s at the end of the race. He had a more than five second margin to Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) who took his first top-ten finish since Assen after starting from 20^th. Van der Mark was the only BMW rider on the grid to run the harder SC0 tyre and it paid off, as he finished ahead of Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW). Baz finished ninth as the highest rider using the SCX tyre, although he had to fend off Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) on the race to the line; the pair were separated by 0.069s.

TO NOTE: housekeeping from the Superpole Race

Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) crashed out of the race at Turn 3 which put the Yamaha rider out of the race, when he had been fighting for a place on the front three rows in Race 2. Gerloff was taken to the medical centre for a check-up following the crash. Roberto Tamburini (Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team) brought his bike into the pits in the first half of the race to retire from the race.

The top nine following WorldSBK’s Tissot Superpole Race, full results here:

1 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK)

2. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +0.123s

3. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +1.434s

4. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +1.976s

5. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +3.965s

6. Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) +5.969s

7. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +6.067s

8. Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) +11.297s

9. Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) +11.945s

Fastest Lap: Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) – 1’40.135s, New Lap Record

Watch Race 2 from Portimao at 14:00 Local Time (GMT+1) using the WorldSBK VideoPass!