There was a hat-trick of podium finishes for Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK) during the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship visit to the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” as he claimed two second places and one third place during the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round. It means Razgatlioglu lost ground in the Championship fight and is now 86 points behind Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) after five rounds.

Razgatlioglu was second in Saturday’s Tissot Superpole session after he posted a 1’33.182s to take second on the grid, only behind Bautista. In Race 1, he lost out to Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) as he came home in third place but the 2021 Champion ensured he fought with Bautista in both the Tissot Superpole Race and Race 2 on Sunday as he looked to prevent Bautista from scoring a Misano hat-trick.

In the Superpole Race, Razgatlioglu and Bautista swapped positions several times as they battled it out for the win but, with the red flags shown in the early part of Lap 8, Bautista’s move towards the end of Lap 7 proved to be crucial as he passed Razgatlioglu to take the lead. It meant, with results taken at the last timing point completed by each rider, Bautista claimed victory after his SCX tyre gamble paid off as the majority of the field used the SCQ.

Discussing the Superpole Race, Razgatlioglu said: “I saw the red flag and we didn’t do the last two or three laps, I can’t remember, but the feeling was very good. The rear tyre especially had good grip and the race pace was unbelievable. I saw Bautista’s level was similar because his tyre was spinning a little, mine was sliding. I thought we’d be fighting in the last laps and I hoped I would win! I like fighting. I saw the red flag. I was very angry because I was very close to winning! I needed this win.”

Razgatlioglu once again got a good start from the front row as he moved ahead of Bautista who, on Lap 1, was demoted to third behind his teammate. However, it did not take long for Bautista to be back in the lead as passed both Rinaldi and Razgatlioglu in quick succession. Although Bautista was able to pull away from Razgatlioglu, the fight for second raged on as Rinaldi tried to take his third podium of the round. However, on Lap 16 of 21, Rinaldi was trying to re-pass Razgatlioglu after losing the position and made contact with the Turkish rider at Turn 1, putting Rinaldi out of the race.

On Race 2, Razgatlioglu said: “For me, Race 2 was not an easy race because the pace was very strong. I tried to stay with Michael, but I saw his tyres started to drop. I passed him but after he made a mistake, I haven’t seen the video, but he crashed, and I felt that he touched me. In general, I’m not really happy because my plan for this weekend was to win, especially in the Superpole Race which I was very close to winning but I had bad luck with the red flag. In general, not a bad weekend because I had three podiums.”

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