Superbike, Toprak Razgatlioglu takes hat trick in Portimao
The Pirelli Portugal Round of the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship is in the sign of the duel between Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Nicolò Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). Race 2 was interrupted by the red flag after Jason O’Halloran (Pata Maxus Yamaha) crashed on lap 10 in Turn 1. They restarted, and ‘El Turco’ completed his hat trick by taking his ninth win on the Portuguese track. Third place for Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati).
Bulega at the restart took the lead, then on the second lap he was passed by Toprak but Bulega came back in front at the beginning of the third lap: the two exchanged the position six times. For the Turk it is the 60th WorldSBK victory, one more than Carl Fogarty. Bautista finishes third, three and a half seconds behind the winner.
Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) on the restart moved up to second and then finished fourth ahead of Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK), who scored his best result of the season so far. Sixth place for Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team), who got off to a bad start originally from the fourth box: nice comeback for ‘Petrux’ who precedes Axel Bassani (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team).
Iker Lecuona (Honda HRC) finished eighth ahead of Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team), who earned his third top ten in six races in WorldSBK. Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) finished 11th ahead of Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team).
