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
Feature Image Credit: WorldSBK