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Race report

Portimao WSBK: Bautista denies Razgatlioglu treble win

Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista scored victory in the final World Superbike race of the weekend at Portimao on Sunday, denying Toprak Razgatlioglu a treble win.

Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing Ducati

In what proved to be the only race at the Portuguese track to run its full 20-lap distance, Bautista extended his lead in the standings over Yamaha man Razgatlioglu to 56 points with only three rounds to go.

Kawasaki's Jonathan Rea could once again only manage third place and has now slipped 82 points behind Bautista.

It was Rea who led the opening phase of the race as he managed to grab the lead off poleman Razgatlioglu at the Turn 5 left-hander on the opening lap, with Bautista settling into third place behind his two nearest title rivals.

But Razgatlioglu stuck close to the rear wheel of Rea and was able to retake the lead into the first corner at the start of lap 7, holding off the Ulsterman the following lap as he tried to fight back at the same corner.

Next time by, Rea reasserted his authority as Bautista came close to making a double pass for the lead, slotting into second place behind the Ducati, before the Spaniard hit the front for the first time at the start of lap 10.

While Rea started to fade from the lead fight at this point, Razgatlioglu stuck with Bautista for several more laps, and after passing Rea for second he managed to briefly grab the lead back with a pass at the unusual location of Turn 13.

But just a few corners later Bautista used the superior straight-line speed of his works Ducati V4 R to retake the lead along the start/finish straight, and then eased away to 12th win of the season by a margin of 2.2 seconds.

Behind Rea, Michael Ruben Rinaldi was fourth aboard the second Ducati, holding off Alex Lowes aboard the Kawasaki by half a second.

Andrea Locatelli was a lonely sixth on his Yamaha ahead of top BMW rider Scott Redding and Honda man Xavi Vierge in eighth place, as Vierge's Honda teammate Lecuona crashed out at Turn 14 in the early stages.

Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) was best independent rider in ninth place following a rare crash for Motocorsa Ducati's Axel Bassani, while Loris Baz completed the top 10 aboard the Bonovo BMW.

Luca Bernardi was 13th on the Barni Ducati in his final race outing before being replaced by Xavi Fores for the final three races of the season.

MotoAmerica champion and Portimao wildcard Jake Gagne banked a single point for 15th place aboard his Attack Performance Yamaha.

Portimao WSBK - Race 3 results:

Cla # Rider Bike Gap
1 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati  
2 1 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 2.256
3 65 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 4.758
4 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 7.833
5 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 8.406
6 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 15.191
7 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding BMW 19.661
8 97 Spain Xavi Vierge Honda 20.581
9 31 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 20.889
10 76 France Loris Baz BMW 23.756
11 5 Germany Philipp Oettli Ducati 24.047
12 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark BMW 25.749
13 29 San Marino Luca Bernardi Ducati 29.930
14 2 Italy Roberto Tamburini Yamaha 31.337
15 33 United States Jake Gagne Yamaha 36.203
16 50 Ireland Eugene Laverty BMW 38.719
17 17 Germany Marvin Fritz Yamaha 41.026
18 23 France Christophe Ponsson Yamaha 48.489
19 35 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin Honda 48.591
20 36 Argentina Leandro Mercado Honda 48.727
21 3 Japan Kohta Nozane Yamaha 49.505
22 7 Spain Iker Lecuona Honda 1'06.148
23 52 Czech Republic Oliver Konig Kawasaki 1'13.116
  47 Italy Axel Bassani Ducati  
  91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam Kawasaki  
  44 France Lucas Mahias Kawasaki  

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