A controversial crash in the Tissot Superpole Race in Jerez that led to borderline violent scenes from the Turkish fans coupled with a crushing treble of race wins from Nicolo Bulega was not enough to prevent Toprak Razgatlioglu from wrapping up his third WorldSBK title at the Pirelli Spanish Round.
Tissot Superpole Race
All Razgatlioglu had to do to wrap up the championship was finish in the top 7 of the morning’s 10-lap race. This should not have been difficult and it was fully expected that ‘El Turco’ would seal the deal before the final full-distance race of the year in the afternoon.
A promising start that left him challenging Bulega on the first lap saw Razgatlioglu pushed wide by Bulega at turn 5 in a similar but more consequential move to the one that occurred at the start of Race 1 yesterday. Razgatlioglu was unable to rejoin and thankfully his BMW was not too damaged, although there were obvious concerns about reliability for Race 2.
Razgatlioglu’s exit meant that BMW’s efforts to clinch the Manufacturers’ Championship had taken a serious blow with them being left 19 points down on Ducati with one race to go. Bulega was immediately placed under investigation and was docked with a single long-lap penalty, but he was so far out front and so fast that his lead was barely compromised.
Bulega’s dominant win cut the gap to 22 points and although the only way he could win the championship was victory in Race 2 with Razgatlioglu lower than 13th, the anger towards the Ducati rider was palpable as many expected things to have been wrapped up in the morning. Loud boos and jeers were directed towards Bulega when he arrived in the paddock and there were rumours of the ardent Turkish support getting particularly aggressive towards anyone trying to calm them down.
Additional security was deployed and social media went mental demanding justice for Razgatlioglu. The BMW team shielded Razgatlioglu from any press intrusion until after Race 2 as the WorldSBK paddock geared up for its first final race showdown since 2014.
Well behind Bulega came Alvaro Bautista who dispatched Andrea Iannone for 2nd on lap 4 at turn 6. The Italian was able to hold on to 3rd place ahead of a squabbling Xavi Vierge and Alex Lowes, the latter running wide on the last lap to cost him 4th place.
Andrea Locatelli passed an impressive Tarran Mackenzie for 6th place on the penultimate lap while Iker Lecuona and Micheal van der Mark rounded out the crucial top 9 spots that set the grid for Race 2, with Razgatlioglu trapped down in 10th.
Tissot Superpole Race Results
Race 2
Amidst the fallout of the Bulega/Razgatlioglu incident, some hugely unfortunate news broke from the medical centre. Jonathan Rea crashed out at high speed with Remy Gardner at turn 3 and unlike his accident at turn 4 yesterday, this one left him with an injured knee and he was declared unfit for Race 2.
Rea was therefore left unable to contest his final WorldSBK race in which Yamaha were running a celebratory livery. A despondent Rea was caught on camera watching the race with his family from their garage following a huge outpouring of support and appreciation in the paddock towards the Northern Irish 6-time World Champion, who may be seen testing next year in plans that are yet to be revealed.
Starting in 10th, the only real fear for Razgatlioglu was if his bike broke down or he was caught up in a melee in the midfield. The Turk methodically made his way up to 3rd place and settled there to win the championship by 13 points as Bulega clinched a treble of race victories.
Bulega first had to ignore the pressure by the critical fans and even some of his fellow riders, and he lost the initial lead to his teammate Bautista who was obviously determined to repeat Chaz Davies past feat of winning his last race with the aruba.it Ducati team. Through his strong point of turn 5 that let him set up a move into turn 6, once Bulega was past Bautista it was a done deal and all the focus switched to Razgatlioglu.
With 12 laps to go Razgatlioglu was already up to 3rd, having dealt with Locatelli, Vierge, Lowes and Iannone who had been battling all weekend in Jerez for positions just below the rostrum. It was a fairly underwhelming race overall once Razgatlioglu settled into his rhythm and the laps wound down to confirm him as a 3-time WorldSBK Champion ahead of his blockbuster move to MotoGP next season.
Iannone had slipped back while running in 7th to fend off Mackenzie and Lecuona, who swapped places by the end of the race. Michael van der Mark was a lowly 13th in his final WorldSBK race as BMW lost out on the Manufacturers’ Championship to Ducati.
Bautista did more than enough to secure 3rd place overall in the World Championship which arguably should have gone to the Independent Champion Danilo Petrucci, who was ruled out of the last 2 rounds (6 races). The only retirements from the race were Lukas Tulovic through a crash and Garrett Gerloff brought his underwhelming season with Kawasaki to close by retiring into the pitlane.
In any other year, Bulega would have been World Championship, but the critical retirement while leading Race 2 in Assen for example when Razgatlioglu was further down the order will be a painful pill to swallow. As for Razgatlioglu, he heads to MotoGP having left his mark on a championship that will simply never be the same without him, or indeed Jonathan Rea…
Race 2 Results
2025 WorldSBK Riders’ Championship Standings
2025 WorldSBK Manufacturers’ Championship Standings
Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK
