ROKiT BMW Motorrad’s Toprak Razgatlioglu blitzed the World Superbike field to win the Superpole Race at Misano.
The Turkish rider targeted winning all three races heading into the weekend and his triumph on Sunday morning put him just one win shy of his target.
Meanwhile, Aruba.it Racing – Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega could only hold onto second as his team-mate Alvaro Bautista crashed midway through the race.
Points were on offer to the top nine with 12 reserved for the winner and a single point reserved for the ninth-place finisher.
The 10-lap race was also important as the front three rows of the grid in Race 2 are determined by how the top nine finish in the Superpole race.
Bulega initially made the quickest getaway but ran wide at Turn 1 to allow Razgatlioglu back into the lead and Kawasaki Racing Team’s Alex Lowes into second.
Remy Gardner had a tricky start from the front row, falling back to eighth aboard his GYTR GRT Yamaha.
Bulega was quick to recover though, passing Lowes and Razgatlioglu by the time Lap 2 commenced.
Sam Lowes endured more misery on Lap 2 with his second crash in as many races aboard the Marc VDS Ducati and Gardner’s race went from bad to worse when he tangled with Bonovo Action rider Garrett Gerloff.
Bulega and Razgatlioglu were rampant out in front, setting lap-record pace and with seven laps to go the fight for victory was intense.
Razgatlioglu assumed the lead at Turn 8 on Lap 4, keeping his BMW M 1000 RR ahead of Bulega through the following sequence of corners and onto the back straight.
The Turkish rider pushed the lap record pace further, but Bulega couldn’t be dropped.
However, Alvaro Bautista dropped down the order, falling at Turn 10 on Lap 5 and tumbling from fourth to 21st.
Razgatlioglu consistently lapped in the 1:32 range, putting up a performance akin to qualifying to stretch his advantage over Bulega to nine-tenths of a second with three laps remaining.
The Turkish rider’s advantage grew to over one and a half seconds as he came around to start the final lap of the race.
Razgatlioglu crossed the line to sign off on a stylish win, extending his championship lead to 15 points over Bautista and demonstrating his brilliance aboard the BMW M 1000 RR.
Bulega finished 1.651s back in second and Alex Lowes completed the podium with a fine effort aboard his ZX-10RR.
Pata Prometeon Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli finished fourth for the second successive race with Team GoEleven Ducati’s Andrea Iannone completing the top five.
Lowes’ KRT team-mate Axel Bassani finished sixth, ahead of Team HRC Honda rider Iker Lecuona, who will be buoyed by an improved display with his CBR1000 RR-R.
Jonathan Rea finished eighth as he fights to rediscover his form on his new Yamaha YZF R1 steed and Barni Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci finished an impressive ninth as he continues to battle back from injury, securing his spot on the outside of row three for Race 2’s grid on Sunday afternoon.
GYTR GRT Yamaha’s Dominique Aegerter finished in 10th ahead of Motocorsa Ducati rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi.
Razgatlioglu’s extreme pace was exemplified by team-mate Michael van der Mark finishing 19 seconds back in 12th, although the Dutchman was plagued by a lowly 17th place grid slot.
Xavi Vierge finished 13th for Team HRC with Bonovo BMW rider Scott Redding and Puccetti Kawasaki pilot Tito Rabat finishing 14th and 15th respectively.
Ducati wildcard rider Michele Pirro finished in 16th ahead of Bautista, who remained scoreless as he could only recover to 17th after his crash.
18th went to Tarran Mackenzie on the Petronas MIE Racing Honda, leading fellow strugglers Philipp Oettl (GMT94 Yamaha) and Bradley Ray (Yamaha Motoxracing).
Adam Norrodin was the last of the finishers aboard the second Petronas MIE Racing Honda.
