All eyes were on Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) ahead of the race weekend at the Autodrom Most and most recently, Saturday’s Race 1. After Bulega’s dominant performances to open the season at Phillip Island and most recently at Cremona, if he wants to catch Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) for the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship title fight, he will need to ride well at Most – a track he has historically dominated.

Razgatlioglu earned once again the merit of being dubbed the ‘Master of Most’. The Turkish rider showed composure to keep up with a rapid Bulega who claimed the holeshot, and later he was able to outbrake his rival in the heavy braking zone of Turn 1 to move ahead. That enabled to him take P1 back from the current Championship leader on Lap 5 and ran away from the competition from there. ‘El Turco’ went on to finish six seconds ahead of Bulega and claimed his 62^nd career WorldSBK win, placing him one win short of Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) with 63.

Discussing his first win since the Tissot Superpole Race at Assen, the #1 stated: “This has been the is the best race of the season so far. I’m really happy because I needed a win. I had not won a long race since Portimao so I’m really happy here after so many races. Every session we are improving the bike, but we still need more because there are still two more races tomorrow.”

While Saturday’s Race 1 was much sunnier and dryer than Friday’s practice sessions, riders still struggled for traction as the cool track temperatures and wind asked questions about each bike’s grip on the track. Toprak however appeared unbothered as he was as precise as ever to take home his fifth win of the season.

On Race 1’s blustery conditions, Razgatlioglu said: “The beginning of the race was not easy because I was trying to adapt to the weather conditions. The wind would be very strong one lap, then change quickly there would be less wind the next lap yet the bike would still have trouble stopping. After I adjusted, I was able to keep a strong pace, we did many laps in the low 1’31s. Just at the end of the race, the gap closed a little bit because we wanted to conserve a little bit the tyre in the next race. The next two races are really important for us; my target is two race wins. I’m really focused on my job this weekend. The team is happy, and we are excited for tomorrow even if the weather is bad.”

Can Toprak top tomorrow’s pair of races to chip away at Bulega’s Championship lead? Tune in tomorrow live or on demand with the  WorldSBK VideoPass! Now 30% off!