After taking pole position earlier on in the day in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) was able to convert that into a commanding Race 1 victory by more than four seconds in the 21-lap race at the Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit. Razgatlioglu was able to take a handful of points out of Alvaro Bautista’s (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) Championship lead as the Spanish rider finished in second place.

CHAMPIONSHIP TOP THREE ON THE PODIUM: Razgatlioglu takes Mandalika victory

As the lights went out for WorldSBK’s 900^th race, all three in the top three of Championship standings got a good started heading into Turn 1 with Razgatlioglu holding onto the lead ahead of teammate Andrea Locatelli, who moved up ahead of Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) into second place. Rea was able to pass Locatelli on Lap 2 to move into second place while Bautista, who moved up from fifth on the grid, passed Locatelli to move into third on Lap 3 of 21 at Turn 13.

Razgatlioglu was able to pull out a gap as the others battled past his teammate and soon it was Rea vs Bautista for second place. Bautista made his move through the high-speed right hander of Turn 15 and into the Turn 16 hairpin for second place and soon opened up a gap to Rea who took third place. On Lap 13, Razgatlioglu lost two seconds as he went through the shortcut that starts at Turn 7, with Bautista reducing the gap to one second but, a lap later, Razgatlioglu was able to find half-a-second to extend it back out to 1.5s.

Razgatlioglu carried on extending his gap out over Bautista to four seconds to take his 30^th victory of his career in his 90^th race for Yamaha as well as his 78^th podium in WorldSBK. 28 of Razgatlioglu’s wins have come with Yamaha and, in terms of wins, he becomes the Japanese manufacturer’s most successful rider with 28 wins. With Bautista in second place, taking his 55^th podium, Razgatlioglu was able to take five points out of his Championship lead with the Spanish rider leading by 77 points; Bautista will still be able to take the title on Sunday in Indonesia. Rea is now mathematically out of title contention as he lost ground to Bautista with third place but took his 240^th WorldSBK podium. With 900 WorldSBK races now run, Rea has stood on the podium in 26% of WorldSBK’s races.

THE FIGHT FOR FOURTH: Locatelli vs Rinaldi

There was a fierce battle for fourth place between Locatelli and Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) with Rinaldi making a pass on Locatelli to move into fourth place on Lap 16 but, a lap later, ran wide at Turn 16 which allowed Locatelli back through to take fourth and his first top-five finish since Estoril. Rinaldi did fight from ninth on the grid to take fifth place, dropping back to around four seconds behind Locatelli at the end of the race. Xavi Vierge (Team HRC), the sole Team HRC rider in Race 1, took sixth place after he fended off Garrett Gerloff (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) with the American taking seventh place.

ROUNDING OUT THE TOP TEN: a rollercoaster race…

Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) took eighth place after an up-and-down 21 laps. He had moved into the top five in the early stages but he had a moment at Turn 15 and into Turn 16 which dropped him down the order before he fought back for eighth place. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was ninth, three tenths behind Bassani, while he had an eight second margin to Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) rounded out the top ten.

SCORING POINTS: in the top 15

Baz had to fend off a charging Xavi Fores (BARNI Spark Racing Team) to take his place in the top ten with Fores in 11^th place. Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was 12^th after he dropped down the order in the early stages. Redding had a few off-track excursions during the race and was running in the final positions but was able to fight back to take 12^th spot. Hafizh Syahrin (MIE Racing Honda Team) returned to WorldSBK action after missing Argentina through illness and injury and he took points on his return with 13^th, finishing ahead of Eugene Laverty (Bonovo Action BMW) and Kohta Nozane (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) who rounded out the points-paying positions; Nozane taking his first points since Race 2 in Barcelona. Oliver Konig (Orelac Racing VerdNatura) was the last classified rider in 16^th place.

HOUSEKEEPING: to note from Race 1

Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) did not take part in Race 1 following his Free Practice 3 crash where he was diagnosed with a right ankle sprain and declared unfit for Saturday’s action. He will be reassessed ahead of Sunday’s Warm Up session to determine his participation on Sunday. Iker Lecuona (Team HRC) also did not take part in the race after he was declared unfit following his Free Practice 2 crash. Philipp Oettl (Team Goeleven) was the first retirement of the race when he had a crash at Turn 7 which put him out of the race, while Leandro Mercado (MIE Racing Honda Team) and Kyle Smith (TPR Team Pedercini Racing) both had technical issues within a lap of each other which put them out of the race; both were running in the points-paying positions at the time. Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) had moved from 11^th to the top six in the early stages but dropped down to tenth before a Lap 18 crash at Turn 16 put him out of the race.

The top six following WorldSBK Race 1, full results here:

1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK)

2. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +4.324s

3. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +11.855s

4. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) +19.954s

5. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +23.992s

6. Xavi Vierge (Team HRC) +27.114s

Fastest lap: Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) – 1’32.886s, new lap record

Watch all the action from Sunday in Indonesia starting at 08:30am Local Time (GMT+8) using the WorldSBK VideoPass!