Toprak Razgatlioglu took a historic 10th victory at Donington Park to slash the championship deficit to Nicolo Bulega to just 4 points under sizzling Leicestershire sunshine as the home heroes did their best to put on a show for the British crowd.
Having started on pole position at a track that is amongst his favourites on the World Superbikes calendar, Razgatlioglu took a comfortable 10th victory around Donington in Race 1 at the Prosecco DOC UK Round. However, the Turkish rider had a couple of unlikely challengers in the opening stages.
Starting in 4th place – his best of the season – Jonathan Rea shot through into 2nd place and very nearly took the lead into Redgate on the 1st lap. Halfway around the lap, Rea’s dream start was thwarted by Alex Lowes and halfway round lap 2, Lowes snatched 1st place from Razgatlioglu on his Bimota.
Sadly, Lowes time in the lead was cut short when he crashed going through the fast Craner Curves at the start of lap 4. Lowes was far from the only fast rider to exit the race early on as three Ducatis from three different teams went down in a scary accident at the first corner on lap 1.
Yari Montella and Sam Lowes came together, collecting Alvaro Bautista on the outside of Redgate corner. This is far from the only time Bautista has been caught in a crash in the midfield after the start of a race this year as the Spaniard’s poor qualifying form keeps leaving him vulnerable.
By one quarter distance in the race, one quarter of the field was already out. Only 16 riders made it to the finish, while it was not just crashes but mechanical problems probably onset by the heat that led to Iker Lecuona’s Honda gearbox giving up.
As some unfortunate riders dropped out, others rose to the fore. Scott Redding had leapt up 8 spots after the 1st lap but his compatriot Ryan Vickers, who like Rea was enjoying his best qualifying of the year at home in Donington fell down 7 spots.
After Alex Lowes took himself out of the lead, Razgatliolgu had enough pace in hand to increase the gap to Bulega behind each lap. Bulega had fallen as low as 5th but was back into 2nd place fairly quickly as Rea started to fade, but had no answer to his BMW rival who won by 6 and a half seconds.
Rea settled at the back of a four-way fight for 3rd behind Danilo Petrucci, Andrea Locatelli and Redding. Behind them came Dominique Aegerter and Garrett Gerloff both running comfortably in their respective positions while another four-way battle ensued over 9th place.
Although Redding appeared to have the most pace and made it into 4th before Petrucci started to pull clear a little, a mistake at the Melbourne Hairpin towards the end dropped him to 6th place at the flag but it was still a positive race for the Brit who had been back racing in the British Superbike Championship just 6 days earlier at Knockhill. In the battle for 9th, Vickers and Michael van der Mark tripped over each other too much and slipped behind Andrea Iannone and Xavi Vierge.
Race 1 Results
Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK
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