Toprak Razgatlioglu completed a weekend of pure dominance with a victory in World Superbike Race Two Sunday afternoon at Donington Park, in England.
Riding his ROKiT BMW Motorrad M 1000 RR on spec Pirelli slicks, Razgatlioglu led every session, qualified on pole position with a new lap record, ran away with the win in Race One, did the same thing again in the Superpole race, and then set a new Race Lap Record on his way to winning Race Two by eight seconds.
Rookie sensation Nicolo Bulega was the runner-up on his Aruba.it Racing Ducati Panigale V4 R.
Alex Lowes thrilled his British fans by taking third on his factory Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR.
Scott Redding finished his best weekend of the season with fourth place on his Bonovo Action BMW.
Two-time and defending Champion Alvaro Bautista, Bulega’s teammate, got fifth.
American Garrett Gerloff finished 13th.
More, from a press release issued by Dorna:
Perfect weekend for dominant Razgatlioglu at Donington Park
Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) dominated the UK Round of WorldSBK with pole position, three victories and three fastest laps at Donington Park
Razgatlioglu extends his championship lead to 41 points from Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) with Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) a further 14 points adrift
Tissot Superpole Race Highlights:
Bulega took the hole-shot and led the opening two laps before Razgatlioglu came through to lead at Turn 11
Razgatlioglu opened his lead consistently to take the victory by just under five second from Bulega
Starting from the middle of the third row Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) was able to move into third position on the opening lap. With riders fighting behind him Rea opened a lead over the chasing pack and after 14 races was able to claim his first Yamaha podium
After suffering a technical failure in Race 1 Scott Redding (Bonovo Action BMW) claimed his first top five finish of the season in fourth position. Redding ran inside the top six throughout before moving past Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) and Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) as the race progressed to finish fourth
Race 2 highlights:
A crash for Bautista on his way to the grid for Race 2 saw the Ducati team repair his bike on the grid. Despite a good start he dropped down the order from sixth position on the grid. The Spaniard recovered to finish fifth
Razgatlioglu led for the 23 lap duration of Race 2 with the BMW rider able to claim his seventh consecutive victory. The win also marked his ninth for BMW and equalled the record of Marco Melandri as the most successful rider for the German manufacturer
Bulega was the closest challenger to Razgatlioglu throughout the race and held an advantage of two seconds to the chasing pack for much of the race. It was Bulega’s eighth second place finish of the season
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) was the leading British rider once again and finished third after battling with Redding for the opening third of the race
Key Points:
Pole position: Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 1’24.629s
Race 1 winner: Toprak Razgatlioglu
Tissot Superpole winner: Toprak Razgatlioglu
Race 2 winner: Toprak Razgatlioglu
Race fastest lap: Toprak Razgatlioglu – 1’25.597s – new lap record
More on worldsbk.com
P1| Toprak Razgatlioglu | ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team
“I’m feeling incredible. My target coming here was to win all three races and we did that. I’m strong but my bike was also incredible at this circuit, and the team found improvements for the bike each day. I want to say thank you to everyone because I’m really happy about how this weekend went. We will see what happens in the next race but even though there are many races to go we can look to the World Championship title.”
P2 | Nicolo Bulega| Aruba.it Racing – Ducati
“I’m really happy because we improved the bike from yesterday. I worked a lot with all my guys inside the garage and we found some improvements. The feeling on the bike was better and it was a great Superpole Race this morning. I started really well and then Toprak overtook me. When he overtook me I forgot about him because this weekend he was very fast. In Race 2 I understood that if I could follow Toprak during the first laps I could open a gap to the riders behind. Alex was very fast at the end and he pushed until the last lap. It’s very difficult to keep your concentration and stay on the bike until the last corner, but I’m really happy to have another podium.”
P3 | Alex Lowes | Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK
“I’m delighted. I was on the limit for the whole race. I didn’t make the best start and I had to attack from the first lap to pass Johnny and Alvaro and then I managed to pass Scott. I hoped that Nicolo would come back to me a little bit, but his pace was relentless. I was on my limit to stay in third and I couldn’t do any more. I wanted to try to get into second but I wasn’t fast enough. I did a good job this weekend and the team did a fantastic job. I really enjoyed the weekend. To have two podiums at my home round is a dream come true with everybody here.”
