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  • WorldSBK: Bulega keeps championship alive with Estoril Race 2 rebound

    WorldSBK: Bulega keeps championship alive with Estoril Race 2 rebound

    Nicolo Bulega bounced back with a dominant Race 2 victory at the EICMA Estoril Round to take the 2025 WorldSBK title down to the final round in Jerez next weekend, although Toprak Razgatlioglu still holds the upper hand after a victory in the Tissot Superpole Race.

     

    Tissot Superpole Race

    The start of the 10-lap Sunday morning race saw Bulega snatch the lead, with teammate Alvaro Bautista in 2nd and Razgatlioglu down to 3rd.  Xavi Vierge mounted a brief attack for 3rd, but the top 3 settled after the first corner.

    When Razgatlioglu fell down the order in yesterday’s race, it did not stop him coming back through to the front.  This time he had only fallen to 3rd so predictably the BMW rider was still in contention for the win despite another poor start.

    Within half a lap, Bautista had succumbed to the pressure from Razgatlioglu.  By the start of the 2nd lap, Razgatlioglu made a successful move for the lead however he then ran wide at turn 6.

    This began a half-lap scrap where the positions changed at turns 8, 10 and then turn 1 on the following lap. Ultimately, Razgatliolgu prevailed and after this entertaining battle it was a done deal for the win, although Bulega at least kept him honest and under pressure for the remainder of the 10 laps.

    Bautista had slipped back and was locked in a battle with Jonathan Rea.  Rea, his teammate Andrea Locatelli and Vierge were stuck behind Bautista after the former very briefly ran in 3rd in the early stages only to crash out at turn 7 on lap 6.

    Yari Montella also crashed out at turn 7 but was able to rejoin while Michael Ruben Rinaldi pulled into the pits of his own volition and Tito Rabat was eliminated late on.

    Andrea Iannone made the most of Rea’s exit as he moved past Remy Gardner and a fading Vierge to seal 5th.  He was also aided by Alex Lowes eliminating himself when he lost the front of the bike at the first corner on the last lap, securing 4th for Locatelli with Bautista broken clear up the road for 3rd with Axel Bassani and Michael van der Mark being promoted into the crucial top 9 that sets grid spots for Race 2.

    Tissot Superpole Race Results

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

     

    Race 2

    Thanks to 2 consecutive runner-up spots, Bulega put himself in a position of near certainty going into the final race of the weekend to prolong the championship battle into Jerez.  However, what the Italian pulled off on Sunday afternoon in Estoril was a real warning shot to his rival ahead of next week’s showdown.

    Once again, Bulega made the hole shot to turn 1 and was followed by Locatelli from 4th on the grid.  Bautista was 3rd, a jump-starting Iannone 4th and Razgatlioglu down to 5th from pole position.

    Predictably, Razgatlioglu’s fightback began on lap 2, passing Bautista for 4th at turn 1.  He did not really need to pass Iannone on-track who would soon be docked with a double long-lap penalty (far from his first this year) but did so anyway at the penultimate chicane of the Estoril track later on lap 2.

    There followed a forceful move on Locatelli by Razgatlioglu at the final chicane, which Iannone also took advantage of.  It was not long before the Italian departed the fight but Bautista and Locatelli had passed him before he dived off the racing line for his penalty.

    By this stage, Bulega was already 1.5 seconds clear of Razgatlioglu.  Surprisingly, the gap did not come down and later in the race Razgatlioglu was caught by the trackside cameras shaking his head as he came out of the last 2 corners.

    It appeared that the hot conditions were causing Razgatlioglu to struggle for rear grip and he had to settle for 2nd place 5 seconds down on a jubilant Bulega.  The race was hardly a classic, but it reignited hope that Bulega was not yet down and out in 2025 as he and Bautista sealed the Teams’ Championship for aruba.it Racing – Ducati.

    Rinaldi and Tarran Mackenzie both crashed out while Lecuona slid out with 8 laps to go.  The fight for the final podium spot was a more muted affair once Alex Lowes (who started 10th) passed Locatelli for 4th on lap 5 but was unable to catch Bautista, as Rea faded to 9th after another promising race start.

    Vierge settled in 6th while Gardner and Axel Bassani fought with Rea for 7th.  van der Mark was 3 seconds back in 10th and was being caught by Garrett Gerloff and a resurgent Iannone.

    The gap now stands at 36 points between Razgatlioglu and Bulega (with BMW and Ducati even closer in the Manufacturers’ Standings) ahead of the Jerez showdown in a week’s time.  Should Bulega prevail in Race 1, the championship will go down to the final day, and the battle for 3rd overall has intensified as Danilo Petrucci’s absence this weekend saw him lose positions to Bautista and Locatelli in the standings.

    Race 2 Results

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK

     

  • WorldSBK: Match point to Razgatlioglu after Estoril Race 1 win

    WorldSBK: Match point to Razgatlioglu after Estoril Race 1 win

    Toprak Razgatlioglu put one hand on the 2025 Superbike World Championship trophy after winning race 1 at the EICMA Estoril Round, with there now being a possibility that the Turkish rider can win his third title in the class tomorrow if he outscores Nicolo Bulega by 21 more points – ahead of the Jerez finale next weekend.

    Starting from pole position with a new lap record around Estoril, Razgatlioglu was pipped to turn 1 by his title rival Nicolo Bulega.  However, five riders crashed and left a chaotic scene at the first corner that necessitated a red flag being flown by the end of the 1st lap.

    The race was interrupted after Tetshuta Nagashima, Bahattin Sofuoglu, Axel Bassani and Michael van der Mark went down together at turn 1 without any serious injuries, while Tarran Mackenzie narrowly avoided going down after also being hit.  Nagashima is a wildcard for Honda HRC this weekend, while Danilo Petrucci, Sam Lowes and Michael Ruben Rinaldi had all been declared unfit prior to the race.

    All of the riders were thankfully able to restart the now 20-lap race.  Razgatlioglu had a nightmare getaway dropping to 5th while Alvaro Bautista shot into the lead ahead of his teammate Bulega.

    For Razgatlioglu, it was imperative that he passed the Yamaha duo Andrea Locatelli and Jonathan Rea in case the Ducati duo escaped up front.  However, the BMW rider made it back into the lead by as early as lap 3…

    When Razgatlioglu moved clear of the Yamahas, Bulega and then Bautista by turn 1 on lap 3, he was able to immediately stretch his lead.  Bulega had to battle past his teammate to stop Razgatlioglu blasting off into the distance, but the consequence of his move at turn 6 left Bautista vulnerable to Rea.

    As has so often been the case in 2025, Razgatlioglu was able to control the pace and came home 2 seconds clear of Bulega.  The gap had been stretched in the first half of the race and steadily came down in the second, but this may have been down to a tyre offset from a swtich made during the red-flag period and Razgatlioglu had enough in hand over the closing laps to respond to Bulega’s pace to give himself a narrow shot at wrapping up the championship after Race 2 tomorrow.

    There was at least plenty of action in the battle for the final podium spot which eventually went to Bautista.  On lap 8, Rea made a mistake by running wide at the first corner but was able to close right back up to Bautista, with the latter then slipping up on lap 12.

    Bautista’s error just after half distance allowed Alex Lowes to close in for the podium battle.  Thankfully for the Ducati rider Lowes slowed down Rea’s assault and Bautista was able to come home 2 seconds clear for 3rd place but a whopping 15 seconds down on the race leader.

    Sadly for the outgoing Rea, there was to be no podium result as he slipped behind both Lowes and Locatelli on lap 15 of 20.  On the following tour an impressive Locatelli got past Lowes into turn 1 to seal 4th while Bautista had gotten clear of the battle behind.

    Xavi Vierge (who replaces the retiring Rea next season) nearly caught the bike that will soon be his and Andrea Iannone was right behind at the chequered flag.  In 9th came Remy Gardner ahead of a charging Garrett Gerloff with Tito Rabat the other big mover from his starting spot.

     

    Race 1 Results

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK

  • WorldSBK: 0.030s separate top 2 in titanic Aragon Race 1 battle

    WorldSBK: 0.030s separate top 2 in titanic Aragon Race 1 battle

    Having never won at this circuit before, Toprak Razgatlioglu extended his winning run to 13 races in the Superbike World Championship after an incredible duel with resurgent polesitter Nicolo Bulega in Race 1 at the Tissot Aragon Round.

    With Bulega starting on pole position with a new lap record and Ducati historically holding the upper hand in Aragon, hopes were high that Razgatlioglu would finally be denied as he steamrolls his way to a third WorldSBK title.  What ensued under the Spanish sunshine was a thrilling battle that lasted the entire length of the race as 2025’s main protagonists chopped and changed positions throughout and were never more than 1 second apart for the entire 18 laps.

    The general pattern was that Bulega would get a much better exit from the long final corner of turn 16 to get close to Razgatlioglu by turn 1, then the latter would be stronger through the middle of the lap.  While the top-2 in the championship did battle, Sam Lowes was in close attendance right behind the pair.

    This pattern first occurred at the end of the 1st and start of the 2nd lap after Razgatlioglu had stolen the lead on lap 1.  Then it happened again at the end of the 2nd lap and the start of the 3rd.  Two laps later and again, Bulega slingshotted into the lead at turn 1 before he ran wide at the tight chicane at turns 14/15 to allow Razgatlioglu back through – then Bulega was ahead again by the next time they reached turn 1.

    By the halfway stage of the race Razgatlioglu had edged ever so slightly clear of Bulega while it looked as if Danilo Petrucci, Alvaro Bautista and Alex Lowes were starting to close up to the top 3.  Ultimately, home hero Bautista crashed out with 6 laps to go from 5th place while Petrucci and Alex Lowes stabilised their respective positions of 4th for the former and an inherited 5th for the latter.

    Behind them, the two Andrea’s were battling over 6th with Iannone passing Locatelli in the 2nd half of the race.  Behind them came Axel Bassani from 23rd on the grid after being penalised earlier, with the Bimota rider making up 15 places and settling into 8th in the closing laps while Jonathan Rea faded after to 13th after his own promising start.

    With 5 laps to go, Bulega began to pick up his pace and stretch a small gap to Sam Lowes.  However, Sam was saving himself for the last couple of laps and closed back in to the top 2 to finish less than 1 second off the winner.

    The MarcVDS rider was so close but just not quite by enough to get involved in the scrap for the lead as Bulega very nearly made it past Razgatlioglu into turn 1 on the final lap.  Once again, a superb ride through the long last corner let the Ducati rider close right up to the BMW as they blasted towards the chequered flag and were separated by just 0.030s in Razgatlioglu’s favour.

    The win meant a lot to Razgatlioglu and was devastating for Bulega after such a defiant ride.  Not only was it the Turk’s first win at Aragon but it matched his record of 13 consecutive wins from last season and was of course another hammer blow in the championship for his Italian rival – but tomorrow’s pair of races should hopefully be another close fought affair with the BMW and Ducati neck-and-neck.

    Race 1 Results

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK

  • WorldSBK: Attritional Race 1 at Magny-Cours sees Razgatlioglu make history

    WorldSBK: Attritional Race 1 at Magny-Cours sees Razgatlioglu make history

    Toprak Razgatliolu became the first rider since Troy Corser to win at the same circuit on three different makes of bike in the Superbike World Championship in the opening race of the 2025 French Round, which saw another hectic lap 1 mix up the field.

    From pole position sealed with an all-time lap record around the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, Razgatlioglu led the field and never looked back at a track that he has already notched up wins on for Kawasaki and Yamaha.  Of course, had it not been for a nightmare crash last season here at Magny-Cours then the record of winning for 3 manufacturers would almost certainly already have been his and Corser’s to share this time last year.

    The man who leapt up to 2nd was Alex Lowes on the Bimota machine, while Nicolo Bulega fell back to 4th also behind Sam Lowes.  Predictably, Bulega would be back into 2nd place after a couple of laps and as usual Razgatlioglu was already comfortably clear by this point while Alex Lowes settled into the final podium spot.

    At turn 9 on what appeared to be quite a clean opening lap of the race, Yari Montella came into the right-hand corner and eliminated both Andrea Iannone and Jonathan Rea.  Rea was able to continue but later retired, while later in the same corner both Xavi Vierge and Alvaro Bautista bizarrely went down themselves (and were at least able to rejoin) to leave 5 bikes on the floor at one point.

    Michael van der Mark avoided the chaos and was finally showing some strong race pace in his morbid 2025 campaign but 2 crashes left him with injured with contusions, just like Iannone from the incident on lap 1.  Garrett Gerloff also slid out at high speed by himself as the race reached the closing stages while Tarran MacKenzie was also forced to retire early on.

    The 15 riders who scored world championship points were the only 15 to have a clean race.  That is except for Sam Lowes, who threw away 4th place with a clumsy crash at turn 13 late on but he was at least able to bring the bike back home in 9th place ahead of an unlikely duo of Bahattin Sofuoglu in 10th and Iker Lecuona replacement rider Sergio Garcia in 11th.

    The attrition meant that Andrea Locatelli was able to come from the pitlane after a crash in quaifying to finish a remarkable 5th place.  Nonetheless, it was Razgatlioglu up front who stole the headlines with a dominant victory that left no one in doubt who was the favourite for Sunday’s pair of races with a 4th consecutive hattrick/treble looking ominous.

     

    Race 1 Results

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK

     

     

  • WorldSBK: Bulega completes hat-trick at home in Cremona

    WorldSBK: Bulega completes hat-trick at home in Cremona

    Nicolo Bulega picked up where he left off the previous day to more-or-less ease to victory in the remaining 2 races at the Cremona Circuit in Italy, with an ardent home crowd and MotoGP figures from Ducati in attendance to witness his historic achievement.

    TISSOT SUPERPOLE

    The 10-lap Tissot Superople around the shortest circuit on the World Superbikes calendar was a rapid affair.  The Sunday morning race took just under 15 minutes and was in many ways a repeat of Race 1 from the previous day.

    Bulega led from pole position ahead of Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista while Sam Lowes once again fell back from the front row of the grid.  Razgatlioglu tried his best to stick with Bulega but by as early as lap 3 it was evident that the latter was managing to pull away at the front.

    While Bulega stretched out his lead, Razgatlioglu kept him in sight but was unable to close in while Bautista once again settled in 3rd.  Andrea Iannone was hit with a double long-lap penalty for narrowly jumping the start and found himself in 9th after serving his punishment, having been in contention for 4th before it.

    Sam Lowes held onto 4th ahead of an Xavi Vierge, with the two faster riders of Iker Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci running out of time to make up more positions.  Crucially for Petrucci he was able to secure 6th place in the race and the same spot on the grid for Race 2 to make up for his shambolic qualifying in the Superpole on Saturday.

    As for Lecuona, he crashed out on lap 9 to make it 2 retirements in 2 races so far in Cremona despite having some scintillating pace.  After the Honda rider crashed out, Andrea Locatelli, Iannone and Michael van der Mark were those who rounded out the top 9 and inherited those same places for Race 2.

    Given how short the race was, the independent Ducati riders Scott Redding and Gabriele Ruiu gambled on running the qualifying tyre but were unable to make much progress.  Redding fell short of the crucial 9th place require to get a better grid position for Race 2, coming home in 11th while Ruiu was 21st.

    TISSOT SUPERPOLE RESULTS

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

     

    RACE 2

    It became known that Lowes was suffering from illness this weekend and this was perhaps why he once again went backwards at the start of the 3rd race of the weekend.  Despite Bautista starting on the front row, he was unable to challenge Bulega and Razgatlioglu who once again held 1st and 2nd places at the start.

    Just as in Race 1, Razgatlioglu scythed up the inside of Bulega with a block pass at the final corner of the 1st lap.  Bulega then stalked his rival for another 3 laps before an unsuccessful move at the end of the back straight on lap 4, which he converted successfully at the same spot a lap later to retake the lead.

    Unsurprisingly, that was the last Razgatlioglu or anyone else saw of Bulega.  In front of a 45,000 strong home crowd and senior figures from Ducati’s MotoGP management, the 25-year-old delivered while the pressure was on to secure an emotional hat-trick that will live long in the memory for him – and his stunned competitors.

    Razgatlioglu nonetheless did well to bank three 2nd place finishes this weekend as he noted Bulega’s superior speed on corner exits, but even Bautista on the other factory Ducati was unable to get close to his teammate.  At least Razgatlioglu was much closer to Bulega in Race 2 than he was in Race 1, with one mistake by Bulega probably enough to put himself under pressure from the BMW rider, however the Italian was peerless around Cremona.

    After Bulega retook the lead the main action was taking place further down the order.  Petrucci was able to take move from up from 6th into 4th after dispatching Lowes and Vierge.  Of course it was still a disappointing weekend for the man who won all 3 races at Cremona last year, and the gap to Bautista in 3rd suggests that 4th may have been the maximum that the Italian could have hoped for anyway.

    The battle for 5th was a thrilling and borderline disastrous affair between the factory Honda duo and Lowes.  Lecuona was again coming through from the midfield and after a tough battle with Locatelli he had around 6 laps to catch and pass his teammate and Lowes up ahead.

    By the time Lecuona became a factor in the battle for 5th, time was running out.  Some very aggressive racing between the two teammates saw them almost collide at the final corner, then Vierge made contact with Lowes coming onto the start-finish straight.

    A thrilling final lap saw Lowes valiantly retake P5 with just 3 corners to go while Vierge had to settle for 7th behind his teammate – a damning result giving their grid positions.  Locatelli was 8th on a difficult weekend for Yamaha, with Michael van der Mark and Remy Gardner rounding out the top 10.

    A hat-trick of wins for Bulega and 3 straight 2nd places for Razgatlioglu sees the Italian rider stretch his lead in the World Championship to 34 points heading to Autodrom Most for Round 5 in a fortnight’s time.  By then, it would not be a great surprise if Ducati has their fuel-flow slightly restricted to try and peg back Bulega in particular, but the concessions system in WorldSBK might not be enough to stop the 25-year-old from running away with this year’s title if the Acerbis Italian Round was anything to go by.

    RACE 2 RESULTS

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK

  • WorldSBK: Locatelli takes maiden win amid double Bulega retirement

    WorldSBK: Locatelli takes maiden win amid double Bulega retirement

    Andrea Locatelli inherited a first WorldSBK victory in Assen after the frighteningly fast Nicolo Bulega suffered mechanical problems in both the Tissot Superpole and Race 2 to leave the championship leader pointless on Sunday at the Pirelli Dutch Round.

    TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE

    Rain was falling as expected on Sunday morning at the TT Circuit Assen, with the warmup and Tissot Superpole being a wet affair for the WorldSBK riders.  With the qualifying session on Saturday also setting the grid for the Superpole race, Sam Lowes had a second shot at converting his maiden pole position while Razgatiloglu and Axel Bassani were not affected by any grid penalties unlike in Race 1 yesterday.

    As the sun started to break through the clouds by the 11am race start time, Bulega once again shot from second into the race lead ahead of Lowes as he had done in the first race on the previous day.  Lowes fell to ninth by running wide at turn 1 in the tricky conditions, which left Razgatlioglu to chase Bulega for the race lead.

    Andrea Iannone did well at the start to jump into third, a place that he eventually lost to his fellow Andrea – Locatelli – who had taken an impressive second place the day before.  Things only got worse for Iannone, who ran wide then later crashed his satellite Go Eleven Ducati bike.

    Razgatlioglu made a move on Bulega for the lead at turn 5 on the 2nd lap.  The gap between the top two in the race and the championship ballooned to almost one second by the end of the lap as the BMW rider best adapted to the tricky conditions.

    Lowes began to recover from his off at the start and made it back to the podium by the end of the 10-lap affair.  The marcVDS Ducati rider had to try twice on the same lap to get past Alvaro Bautista’s factory bike, and then easily inherited second when Bulega ran wide at turn 1.

    As it transpired, Bulega had an issue with his Ducati Panigale V4R that dropped him out of contention.  The results from the top nine in the Tissot Superpole Race determine the starting grid for Race 2, from which the championship leader would have to start from 10th place.

    With Razgatlioglu, Lowes and Bautista coming home on the podium, home hero Michael van der Mark tried valiantly to take P4 from Locatelli but came up short.  Scott Redding had a respectable ride to 6th after passing Remy Gardner in the closing stages.

    Yari Montella and Tarran McKenzie also did well in the wet to start race 2 from row 3.  With Bulega mired on row 4 and Razgatlioglu taking a chunk of points from his rival with his 12 points for the win, it set up a fascinating final race in the afternoon.

    TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

     

    RACE 2

    With Bulega stuck in 10th place for the start of the 21-lap Sunday afternoon race, his rivals ahead knew that there was a real chance to capitalise on the championship leader coming from so far back.  Razgatlioglu and his BMW team opted to use hard tyres to give himself more grip for the end of the race when the inevitable pace of Bulega would come to haunt him, or at least that was the thinking…

    The hard tyres simply never worked for Razgatlioglu as Bulega predictably deployed his superior pace to methodically work his way towards the front of the grid. Once again Sam Lowes had a difficult start from the front row, while Bautista passed Razgatlioglu for the initial lead.

    The race developed into a train of the top 7 bikes by about ¼ distance, with Bulega at the back of the pack having risen calmly from 10th.  Locatelli had swooped past Razgatlioglu on the 2nd lap, while Remy Gardner had a thrilling start to run as high as 2nd himself.

    As Locatelli and Gardner fought tooth and nail for P2, Razgatlioglu continued to fall down the order.  After Locatelli had finally dealt with Gardner to cement 2nd on lap 7, the Yamaha rider had enough pace to reel in Bautista for the race lead.

    Once Locatelli had passed Bautista, Bulega was ready to seize on his teammate and then overtook Locatelli for the lead at the halfway point.  That was the last anyone saw of Bulega until it all went wrong for the second time in one day.

    While Bulega stretched his lead the race settled down with Locatelli, Bautista, Gardner, Lowes, Bassani and Razgatlioglu the order.  Then Bulega tragically retired once again with just 2 laps to go after such a stunning ride in Assen that went unrewarded.

    Locatelli was left to inherit his first victory in the Superbike World Championship after a record 154 winless attempts.  Meanwhile, a frustrated Razgatlioglu lost a further two spots at the end to Alex Lowes and Iker Lecuona to fall to eighth in a race where he could have taken up to 25 points out of the championship leader.

    RACE 2 RESULTS

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: Ducati

  • WorldSBK: Razgatlioglu responds to Bulega challenge with treble in Portimao

    WorldSBK: Razgatlioglu responds to Bulega challenge with treble in Portimao

    Toprak Razgatlioglu added victories in the Tissot Superpole and Race 2 in Portimao to become the 2nd rider this season to secure a treble of victories in one round.  However, much like in Race 1 Nicolo Bulega ran him incredibly close after the Turkish rider didn’t do himself any favours with his race starts.

    TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE

    As with Race 1 on Saturday, Bulega got the hole shot into turn 1, powering ahead of Razgatlioglu who this time slipped to 3rd.   Danilo Petrucci spent exactly one lap ahead of Razgatlioglu, passing him at the first corner on lap 1 and losing the position at the same spot on lap 2.

    On lap 5, Bulega lost the lead to Razgatlioglu at turn 3 in a move that the Turkish rider had visibly been setting up for some time.  Just after the lead changed hands, just outside the top three Bulega’s teammate Alvaro Bautista passed Andrea Locatelli for fourth.

    As the 10-lap race entered its second half Bulega tried his best to keep pace with Razgatlioglu as Bautista hunted down Petrucci for 3rd.  The factory Ducati rider passed the satellite one with 2 laps to go, after which there was no time for the two-time World Champion to catch the leaders.

    At least Bautista was able to demonstrate the pace that he could not show on Saturday after contact with Scott Redding in Race 1.  Another rider on the back foot from the previous day – Alex Lowes – did a great job to scythe through from the back of the field but could not make it into the top 10 within 10 laps, thus leaving him unable to change his grid position for Race 2.

    Meanwhile, behind Locatelli in fifth the other BMW of Michael van der Mark was able to despatch the Honda pair of Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge towards the end.  Despite this, the Japanese manufacturer was enjoying a decent turn of pace, with its recent switch of suspension supplier possibly helping with their upturn in form.

    Up front, the only time Bulega looked genuinely threatening against Razgatlioglu in the second half of the race was right at the very end.  Coming through turn 14 and the long turn 15 onto the start-finish straight Bulega rapidly closed on Razgatlioglu but had to change from the outside to the inside as they approached the chequered flag.

    The positioning of his BMW on the final blast to the line have secured Razgatlioglu his first Tissot Superpole Race victory of the year by just 0.055 seconds.  Much like Race 1, it was clear that Bulega was capable of taking the fight to Razgatlioglu on the circuit that is notorious for being a favourite of the Turk, and hopes were high for another close tussle in Race 2.

    TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    RACE 2

    This time around, Razgatlioglu only lost one position from pole by turn 1.  Bulega led from his BMW rival and Aruba.it Racing teammate Bautista.

    Locatelli held off Razgatlioglu’s teammate van der Mark for fourth while an entertaining battle for positions six through nine kicked off between Andrea Iannone, Remy Gardner and the Honda duo.  However, this action was thwarted after Iannone received a double long-lap penalty for jumping the start, with the Italian taking the first of these on lap 5.

    Shortly after Vierge crashed out, as did Tito Rabat further down the order.  Up front, Bulega continued to lead from Razgatlioglu and they began to put as much as 0.7 seconds a lap between themselves and Bautista who simply had to settle for third best.

    The laptimes of the top two as the race edged towards halfway were as quick as the pole position laps from last year, which illustrates both how dominant the two were around the Algarve International Circuit and how much the speed of their respective superbikes increases year-on-year.  Inevitably, as the race reached halfway Razgatlioglu began to close in on his Bulega as he sought to take the treble in Portimao but with 11 laps to go his charge was halted.

    Jason O’Halloran (in for the injured Jonathan Rea) went down at turn 1 and was seemingly OK after the impact.  However, his Pata Maxus Yamaha careered into the air fence on the outside of the run-off area and the race was halted with a red flag.

    This created opportunities for a couple of riders, most notably Scott Redding and Alex Lowes.  Just before the red flag Redding had trundled into the pits with a technical problem but just made it back onto the grid before the restart after the issue with his MGM Bonovo Ducati was solved, while Lowes finally started a race from a better position this weekend having made his way to 13th by the time of the stoppage.

    The WorldSBK stewards announced a quick-restart procedure after the air-fence was inspected and repaired after not too long of a delay, but there was pandemonium at the Team Pata Go Eleven pits.

    Iannone had not served his second long-lap penalty, which can be taken with six laps of the punishment being awarded.  His team tried to argue for their rider’s sake and Iannone avoided disqualification the regulations demanded he serve a double ride-through penalty for failing to observe the double long-lap.

    Four penalties for jumping the start put paid to Iannone’s race and his gesticulations as he came through the pits shortly after his passing his main independent rival Petrucci clearly demonstrated his frustration with the decision.  After barely accelerating after coming out of the pits, the Italian rider eventually came back in and retired in a slightly selfish move considering that he could have collected some data for his engineers in clear air over the remaining few laps, but his anger got the better of him.

    The remaining laps of the restarted race essentially represented a full points-paying event but constrained to the length of a Superpole race.  Razgatlioglu – for the fourth time this weekend – lost out to Bulega on the run to turn 1 and also slipped behind a fast-starting Locatelli who powered through from fourth on the grid.

    Naturally Razgatlioglu made short work of Locatelli who – like Petrucci at the first start – stayed ahead of the BMW for precisely one lap.  By the following lap, Razgatlioglu made a sensational move on Bulega into turn 1, forcing his rival to sit up as he went through the apex of the corner as the BMW bulldozed him off his line.

    At the same time, Locatelli fell back to fourth after Bautista passed him and quickly resettled into his own comfortable gap between the top two and the Yamaha behind.  There was a brief moment in the following lap where Bulega returned the favour on Razgatlioglu and allowed Bautista to close up, but the two-time WorldSBK title winner had no real answer for his teammate or the reigning champion’s race pace.

    Razgatlioglu was back through on lap 15 of 20, after which the lead changed four times over the next three laps.  Further down the order, Tarran MacKenzie and Remy Gardner both crashed out while Axel Bassani engaged in a thrilling battle with Danilo Petrucci for 6th place – the latter securing the position right on the finish line on the final lap.

    The fight between the top two remained on a knife-edge until the very end although Razgatlioglu just held on to take his first triple victory of the season after Bulega did so at the 1st round in Phillip Island.  The Ducati rider still holds a comfortable championship lea thanks to three wins and three second places from six races across the first two rounds of 2025 as WorldSBK next heads to Assen in the Netherlands in two weeks’ time.

    Razgatlioglu may have felt like World Superbikes had become the ‘Ducati Cup’ after the drubbing he suffered in Australia, but his performance in Portugal reignited his and everyone else’s hope that this will be a tight contest between the BMW rider and the two Aruba Ducati’s this season.  However, Bulega might feel that he lost the battle but is winning the war, given how close he could run his rival on a track that has always been a particularly strong venue for Razgatlioglu.

    RACE 2 RESULTS

    Image Credit: WorldSBK

    Feature Image Credit: BMW