WorldSBK Magny Cours Race One: Toprak Razgatlıoğlu takes another dominant win

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu has won Yamaha their first WorldSBK race in 11 years at Magny Cours.

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu has solidified himself at the top of the WorldSBK championship with a strong win to break the deadlock at the top with Rea now five points behind with his second-place in the race.

The race started as you’d expect with a scrap between the front riders, Jonathan Rea was able to pull away with a lead of over a second to second place as Razgatlıoğlu, Lowes, Rinaldi and Locatelli all battled amongst themselves to sort each other out with Razgatlıoğlu emerging in second to no ones surprise ahead of Lowes, Rinaldi then Locatelli.

For Razgatlıoğlu he then set his sights on Jonathan Rea a second up the road, the Turkish title leader did what he does best and was able to catch up to Rea and apply enough pressure on Rea with his speed, eventually overtaking at Turn 5 Adelaide with some contact as you’d expect, Rea letting off the brakes a little otherwise it would’ve very likely been a crash, from then on Toprak disappeared with some incredibly consistent pace in the high 1:36’s/low 1:37’s to gap Rea. Rea was able to claw back the gap with 13 laps to go and was within touching distance before making a small mistake and accepting second position 4.5 seconds behind Toprak Razgatlıoğlu who quite incredibly did the opposite to most and did a stoppie over the finish line!

Andrea Locatelli stormed to another podium after a string of fourth-place finishes, the rookie has been so unbelievably impressive this year and really does deserve these results, he was fortunate today after a crash from Alex Lowes who was in third place, but as we know, to finish first, first you much finish. Locatelli was running in fifth place for much of the race before disposing of Michael Ruben Rinaldi and putting a three-second gap between him and the Ducati in fourth. Rounding off the top five was Michael van der Mark.

Alvaro Bautista was the fastest Honda in sixth place leading top independent rider Chaz Davies who was engaged in a race-long scrap with Axel Bassani, Tom Sykes, Leon Haslam and Scott Redding with Bautista taking the winners cap of this small battle, however it was incredible to watch them duel!

For Scott Redding it was a race to forget in twelfth place following some problems with his bike, even crashing and remounting, he now trails Razgatlıoğlu by 59 championship points.

Full Results – 

Featured image – Yamaha