ROKiT BMW Motorrad’s Toprak Razgatlioglu took his win count to 12 in a row, a new WorldSBK record, with victory during Sunday’s Superpole Race at Portimao.
The Turkish rider was able to comfortably lead the 10 lap proceedings with an intense battle for second giving him several seconds of breathing room.
By the time the race was run, Barni Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci took the runner-up prize with Kawasaki Racing Team’s Alex Lowes in third.
10 Laps of fast-paced WorldSBK action got underway in the heat of the Portugal sun with Petrucci launching from third to first at the start.
Just like Race 1 on Saturday, Razgatlioglu fell to third with Kawasaki’s Lowes taking second into Turn 1.
Once again Alvaro Bautista had a slow start on his Ducati, dropping from sixth to eighth.
As the field came across the finish line for the first time, Petrucci led from Lowes, Razgatlioglu, BMW’s Michael van der Mark, Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega and Yamaha’s Jonathan Rea.
To start Lap 2, Razgatlioglu was able to sweep into first down into Turn 1, with Lowes following him.
Van der Mark tried to get his way past Petrucci into Turn 3, but things got tight and both riders had to sit up to avoid a collision.
Rea, riding without technical trouble that plagued him on Saturday, sythed his way into the top five past Bulega into Turn 1 on the start of Lap 3, but the Ducati man was able to respond just a few corners later.
On Lap 4, Bautista tried his hand at passing Rea into Turn 1, but ran too deep, necessitating a tough block pass on the Yamaha rider at Turn 3 to make a move into the top six stick.
Meanwhile, out in front, Razgatlioglu set about attaining his record-setting 12th win on the bounce, opening his advantage to just over one second as the field crossed the line to start Lap 5.
Tough passes were seeing Rea fall backwards, with Honda’s Xavi Vierge and Team GoEleven Ducati rider Andrea Iannone displacing the six-time World Champion to ninth through the opening two corners.
Razgatlioglu looked like he would remain unchallenged by the time Lap 6 came around as Petrucci fought his way past Lowes to take second, with the second ROKiT BMW Motorrad rider van der Mark making it a three-way battle for second.
That became a four-way battle on Lap 6 as Bulega got on van der Mark’s tail to round out the top five with Bautista not too far behind.
Barring disaster, the win looked like a forgone conclusion as Toprak enjoyed a two-second lead with three and a half laps to go.
Lowes tried his hand at snatching second from Petrucci with an overzealous move at the start of Lap 9, which didn’t come off and saw him surrender third to van der Mark.
On the final lap, Lowes put in a strong move to reclaim third at Turn 8, but that by no means settled the podium contest.
That was no matter to Razgatlioglu who stormed across the finish line to take his historic 12th win in as many attempts, a feat never before achieved in WorldSBK.
Petrucci improved upon his third-place result in Race 1 to take second with Lowes hanging onto third over fourth-placed van der Mark.
The Aruba.it Racing Ducati duo of Bulega and Bautista took fifth and sixth respectively with Vierge coming home an impressive seventh aboard the normally uncompetitive Team HRC Honda Fireblade CBR 1000 RR-R machine.
GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s Dominique Aegerter came home eighth with Iannone taking the final Superpole Race point in ninth.
Sadly for Rea, his difficult season aboard the Pata Prometeon YZF R1 looks set to continue as despite starting amongst the top runners, the Northern Irishman fell out of the points to 10th.
