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Race report
World Superbike Autodrom Most

Most WSBK: Razgatlioglu wins SP race after fierce Rea battle

Toprak Razgatlioglu scored Yamaha's 100th win in the World Superbike championship after beating Jonathan Rea in a fierce battle in the Superpole race at Most.

Toprak Razgatlioglu, Pata Yamaha WorldSBK, Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WSBK

Razgatlioglu and Rea spent most of Sunday morning's 10-lap encounter nose-to-tail, but their battle was decided in the favour of the former when Rea was forced to skip through the gravel on the final lap.

The Kawasaki rider was lucky to stay upright and hold on to second place, in the process cutting Alvaro Bautista's championship lead to 27 points ahead of the final full-distance race of the weekend.

As was the case in Saturday's opener, Razgatlioglu got the jump on poleman Rea at the start, and appeared to have the pace advantage in the early stages.

However, Rea never let his rival get more than about one second clear, and after the halfway mark he rapidly closed in to the point where he was right on Razgatlioglu's tail by the eighth lap.

That allowed Rea to dive through on the inside at the Turn 15 right-hander, but Razgatlioglu stuck close by and was able to get back ahead under braking for the Turn 1 at the start of the penultimate tour.

Rea wasn't close enough to repeat his Turn 15 maneouvre that lap, but a better run through the final two right-handers set him up to take the lead at the start of the final lap under braking at Turn 1.

Moments later, Razgatlioglu swept back ahead at the unusual spot of the high-speed Turn 4 left-hander, but a poor exit through Turn 13 opened the door for Rea to move back ahead as the pair approached Turn 15.

This time however Rea appeared to misjudge his braking and had to trudge through the gravel, clearing the way for Razgatlioglu to score his fifth win of the season unchallenged, although such was the duo's advantage over third-placed Bautista that Rea was still able to finish second.

Ducati rider Bautista had no answer to the pace of the top two, instead spending the race keeping his teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi at bay.

Axel Bassani made it three Ducatis in the top five on his Motocorsa Racing example ahead of Andrea Locatelli's Yamaha and Iker Lecuona on the best of the Hondas.

Scott Redding slipped from seventh to 14th on the opening lap but fought his way back up to eighth aboard the BMW, while Garrett Gerloff claimed the final point on offer in ninth on the GRT Yamaha.

Alex Lowes crashed unaided at Turn 10 on the fourth lap, but the Kawasaki rider had made a late decision to try and start the race after his team had announced he would be sitting it out owing to illness, the Briton having also missed the morning's warm-up session.

Most World Superbike - Superpole race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 1 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 10  
2 65 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 10 2.327
3 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 10 3.406
4 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 10 4.679
5 47 Italy Axel Bassani Ducati 10 7.127
6 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 10 8.328
7 7 Spain Iker Lecuona Honda 10 8.479
8 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding BMW 10 10.308
9 31 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 10 10.506
10 97 Spain Xavi Vierge Honda 10 14.540
11 76 France Loris Baz BMW 10 14.634
12 44 France Lucas Mahias Kawasaki 10 14.760
13 5 Germany Philipp Oettli Ducati 10 15.271
14 29 San Marino Luca Bernardi Ducati 10 18.008
15 35 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin Honda 10 24.394
16 3 Japan Kohta Nozane Yamaha 10 24.574
17 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado Honda 10 24.891
18 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty BMW 10 26.956
19 10 United Kingdom Peter Hickman BMW 10 28.649
20 2 Italy Roberto Tamburini Yamaha 10 35.860
21 6 Czech Republic Michal Prasek BMW 10 57.426
  52 Czech Republic Oliver Konig Kawasaki 8  
  23 France Christophe Ponsson Yamaha 5  
  22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 3  
  77 United Kingdom Ryan Vickers Kawasaki 2  

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