WorldSBK Argentina Race One: Birthday boy Toprak Razgatlıoğlu takes dominant victory

Toprak Razgatlıoğlu won race one in Argentina leading every lap of the race.

Birthday boy Toprak Razgatlıoğlu comes another step closer to realising his dream of being a World Superbike champion, his victory today in Argentina gains him five more championship points over the second-placed Jonathan Rea and unless we see fireworks it looks like this domination may continue this weekend at the Circuito San Juan Villicum, so far Toprak has led FP1, FP2, FP3, then qualified in second after losing the chance to improve his time following a yellow flag before riding to victory in a classy display of dominance on his Yamaha R1. There is no doubt he is the favourite to win both races tomorrow but Jonathan Rea is going to try and put a stop to that.

The race commenced with drama from the very first corner with pole position man Scott Redding crashing out after losing the rear of his Ducati likely screaming in his helmet as he realised his championship hopes may be going down the road with him, a tragic shame for Redding as he proved he had the pace during the race to battle for the win against Razgatlıoğlu who won by 5.3 seconds over Jonathan Rea. Following this crash it became a two-horse race with Rea hot on the tail of Razgatlıoğlu but the pace of the Turkish rider was too much for the Kawasaki man who was forced to accept second place after just five laps as he watched the blue Yamaha sail off into the distance, the pair eventually finishing in P1 then P2, Toprak opening his title lead to 29 points.

The battle for third however was a little more interesting, originally it would be Alex Lowes who occupied the position but was displaced by the front row starting Axel Bassani who rode around in the impressive P3 position for much of the race, adding more and more experience each corner as the 22-year-old watched how the very best riders in the class raced. Eventually, the independent rider would lose his rostrum finish to a strong Michael Ruben Rinaldi who has scored podiums at four different tracks so far this year which bodes incredibly well for 2022 when he is joined by the experienced Alvaro Bautista in the squad.

Bassani would eventually fade to fifth place behind Alex Lowes, given Bassani is an independent rider, a rookie and the youngest rider on the grid I’d say that is a job incredibly well done for the Italian, no doubt Ducati will have him on their list for a future factory seat in the future years. The war would wage on further down the grid between Michael van der Mark and Andrea Locatelli who would trade positions, Locatelli seemingly struggling as he failed to stay with the riders around him falling behind Garrett Gerloff to eventually come home in P8 behind Gerloff then Van der Mark in P6.

As we previously mentioned, Scott Redding had pace for victory today and it’s a tragic shame it was stolen from him at the first corner after starting from pole position, he looked to be strong in the race despite being overtaken instantly by Razgatlıoğlu and crashing out. He would pick up his bike from P21 with his opponents disappearing off into the distance, knuckle down and work his way back through the pack to take home a stunning P9 finish, it wasn’t his day today but there’s no doubt he is the rider of the race today! Rounding out the top 10 was Leon Haslam ahead of Tito Rabat and Chaz Davies.

Full results – 

Featured image – WorldSBK