Toprak Razgatlioglu has slashed the championship points lead of Nicolo Bulega after the BMW rider romped to a treble of victories in Misano and his Ducati rival went pointless in the Tissot Superpole Race.
TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE
With Bulega now able to start on pole position having served his 3-place grid penalty in Race 1 yesterday, he was keen to get the hole-shot into the first corner. However, Axel Bassani (gambling on qualifying tyres for the half-distance event) got a much better launch but went into turn 1 too fast and eliminated himself and Bulega on the spot.
Thankfully neither of the Italian riders were injured on home soil and were able to race again in the full-distance race in the afternoon. Bulega was fuming that Bassani did not immediately offer an apology and the latter was dealt a double long-lap penalty for Race 2.
Razgatlioglu was very fortunate to have avoided the chaos at turn 1 and after his main rival went down the half-distance race was a foregone conclusion. The Turkish rider came home 4 seconds clear of an impressive Alex Lowes (also on qualifying rubber) in 2nd place who secured the first podium finish for Bimota in 25 years that arguably might have gone to his teammate if not for the accident at turn 1.
The rival Yamahas of Andrea Locatelli and Remy Gardner squabbled over 3rd place on lap 1 and their resulting battle left the latter vulnerable to Danilo Petrucci. Unfortunately for Petrucci’s teammate and compatriot Yari Montella he crashed out while chasing Iker Lecuona for the final points-paying position in 9th.
Andrea Iannone was given yet another double long-lap penalty for jumping the start having already been found guilty of the same offence twice before this year. That ruled him out of the fight for points, where the man with the most pace on Sunday morning was Alvaro Bautista.
Bautista was determined to improve his grid position for Race 2 by finishing in the top 9 of the Tissot Superpole Race and eventually made it past Gardner for 5th. Gardner then slipped behind Sam Lowes and Jonathan Rea, who was finally showing some promising pace in his injury-affected 2025 campaign.
TISSOT SUPERPOLE RACE RESULTS
RACE 2
Having dropped 12 points to Razgatlioglu in the Tissot Superpole Race and consigned to starting in 10th for Race 2 of the Pirelli Emilia-Romagna Round, Bulega had a point to prove on Sunday afternoon. The championship leader had made it into 2nd place with 17 laps still to go, but it was already too late to catch Razgatlioglu up front who won by a dominant margin of almost 10 seconds.
Once Razgatlioglu survived the first lap in the lead from pole position the ‘treble’ never looked in doubt. This was the second time in as many years that Razagtlioglu had won all three races in Misano and he has now cut the points gap to Bulega down to just 9 points at the halfway point of the season.
In the sweltering Sunday afternoon heat that was 3 degrees hotter than Race 1 a day earlier, Locatelli, Petrucci and Alex Lowes were once again the riders who ran behind Razgatlioglu. Bautista took some time to get up to speed but after being passed by his charging teammate the Spaniard began his pursuit of the podium.
Around the halfway point of the race, Bautista engaged in battle with Locatelli for 3rd and sealed the deal with a move at turn 10. It was particularly important for Bautista to have a good result as it was revealed ahead of the Misano weekend that negotiations between himself and his factory Ducati team had broken down over a 2026 contract.
Gardner and Montella suffered a high-speed crash while Jonathan Rea slid out of 9th to end his encouraging weekend on a low. Likewise, Alex Lowes crashed out of 6th after his and Bimota’s breakthrough podium finish earlier in the day but recovered to finish 14th.
The double long-lap penalty for torpedoing Bulega in the Tissot Superpole Race cost the other Bimota of Bassani any chance of a good result after such a strong qualifying earlier in the weekend, while Iannone’s nightmare weekend continued with a crash two laps from home.
The attrition left Locatelli ahead of Petrucci in 4th, with the Italian struggling to keep the Lowes brothers and the Lecuona behind. Once Alex Lowes slid off, Petrucci just held on ahead of Lecuona and Sam Lowes for another solid result that helps keep him narrowly ahead of the factory Ducati of Bautista in the championship.
There was a monumental gap between Sam Lowes in 7th and Garrett Gerloff in 8th. The fight over P8 however was absolutely thrilling.
Gerloff prevailed over Xavi Vierge, an under-pressure Michael van der Mark and an impressive Ryan Vickers but the race-long fight for 8th also featured Iannone and Scott Redding before they both crashed out with less than 2 laps to go. The battles further down the grid compensated for the lack of action at the sharp end as an ecstatic Razgatlioglu gets ever more motivated to switch to MotoGP next year as the reigning World Superbike champion, but Bulega is far from beaten as the season concludes its first half…
RACE 2 RESULTS
Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK