ROKiT BMW Motorrad’s Toprak Razgatlioglu made it four hat-tricks in a row with his WorldSBK Race 2 victory at Portimao, but he was made to fight for it.
The Turkish rider won out in the closest finish of the year, beating Aruba.it Racing Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega by just 0.035s.
The top nine finishers from the Superpole Race lined up as they finished for Sunday evening’s Race 2 at Portimao with Razgatlioglu, Barni Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci and Kawasaki’s Alex Lowes getting ready to set off for 20 laps from the front row.
For the second time on Sunday, Petrucci got the holeshot, but he lost the lead to Razgatlioglu at Turn 3 and second to the Turkish rider’s BMW team-mate Michael van der Mark.
Lowes then came through to claim second by the time the field reached the Turn 5 hairpin.
The no.22 Kawasaki rider was on a mission, trying his best to challenge Razgatlioglu into Turn 1 at the start of Lap 2 of 20, but to no avail.
However, Razgatlioglu headed wide at Turn 5, letting Lowes through to take the lead.
The weekend up to this point belonged to Razgatlioglu, but his BMW team-mate Van der Mark slipstreamed past him and Lowes to take the lead at the start of Lap 3.
Lowes repaid the favour a lap later, with Razgatlioglu and the Aruba.it Racing Ducati pairing of Bulega and Alvaro Bautista watching on.
Team GoEleven Ducati rider Andrea Iannone also joined in on the fun in sixth with Petrucci not too far behind as the race was hotting up.
Through to Lap 5, and Lowes had the fastest lap in his pocket and a modest lead of five-tenths of a second over Razgatlioglu, who passed his team-mate into Turn 1, with Bautista doing the same to his.
Razgatlioglu fought to get on Lowes’ tail by the end of Lap 5, drafting past the Kawasaki rider on the start/finish straight and losing a winglet in the process as he returned to the front.
Meanwhile, Bautista made his way up to third at van der Mark’s expense, with Iannone now closing on the Dutchman in fifth.
Lowes’ early charge to the front was fading as Bautista pulled into second at the start of Lap 8 as van der Mark fought hard to keep Bulega at bay.
Van der Mark eventually succumbed, slipping to fifth, then to sixth as Iannone swept into fifth at Turn 1 on Lap 9.
Bautista meanwhile, was in hard pursuit of Razgatlioglu, doing his best to stop yet another win for the Turkish rider.
As the race approached halfway distance, the gap between the top two remained at 1.2s with Bautista enjoying a slight gap over Bulega and Lowes.
On Lap 13, the gap had more than halved and Razgatlioglu now had Bautista for close company.
With six laps to go, sure enough, Bautista was right on Razgatlioglu’s rear wheel and with five laps to go he put a block pass on the Turkish rider to take the lead at Turn 3.
Razgatlioglu responded at Turn 5, running slightly deep but it was no matter, Bautista went down!
The Spaniard lost the front of his Ducati Panigale V4R, handing Razgatlioglu a slight reprieve and promoting Bulega up to second.
Bulega was by no means ready to settle for that and challenged Razgatlioglu down the start/finish straight moments after inheriting second.
With only a handful of laps remaining a duel was on between the two riders.
On Lap 19 of 20, Bulega had another look at Razgatlioglu but didn’t have enough pace to draft past the BMW into Turn 1.
Onto the Final Lap and the Italian had the same problem and would need to look elsewhere if he were to stop Razgatlioglu from winning for the 13th time in succession.
Bulega went close at the line, but it wasn’t enough as Razgatlioglu set a fourth hat-trick of wins in a row.
Lowes completed the podium with Iannone the top independent rider in fourth, ahead of Petrucci, who completed the top five.
Pata Prometeon Yamaha’s Jonathan Rea had his best result of the weekend in sixth with van der Mark closing his weekend with a seventh-place finish.
Bonovo’s Garrett Gerloff made it three BMWs in the top-10 with eighth, with Honda’s Xavi Viege finishing a commendable ninth.
GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s Dominique Aegerter secured another top-10 finish beating 11th-placed Pata Prometeon Yamaha rider Andrea Locatelli.
Aegerter’s team-mate Remy Garnder took 12th with Honda’s Iker Lecuona, Bonovo’s Scott Redding and Kawasaki’s Axel Bassani closing out the points to 15th.
