WorldSBK Race 2 – Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) denies Rinaldi a home hat-trick with Misano Race 2 victory.

The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship action came to a thrilling conclusion in Race 2 for the Pirelli Made in Italy Emilia-Romagna Round as Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) claimed his first victory of the season at the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” as he denied home hero Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) a hat-trick of wins on home soil.

The start was a precursor of what was to come throughout the 21-lap race as Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) moved to the front after he took advantage of Razgatlioglu’s aggressive move on Rinaldi on the opening lap, ducking down the inside the pair of them at Turn 4. Rinaldi was able to recover to pass Turkish sensation Razgatlioglu.

Rinaldi soon made his move on Rea to take the lead of the race before a slight mistake from the Italian allowed Rea to respond; although Rinaldi was able to take the lead a lap later. Razgatlioglu made his move on Rea at Turn 8 to move into second place and soon set his sights on Rinaldi in search of his first victory of the 2021 campaign.

Rinaldi was unable to pull a gap out to Razgatlioglu with the Turkish rider keeping the pressure on the two-time race winner in 2021, before Razgatlioglu caught Rinaldi by surprise at Turn 14 on Lap 8 to take the lead, instantly pulling out a gap of around half-a-second before extending that to over a second at the start of Lap 1, with Rea able to put pressure on Rinaldi.

As Razgatlioglu continued out in front, Rea started to apply the pressure to Rinaldi with the Italian able to resist the six-time Champion and, as the laps counted down, Rinaldi started closing the gap to Razgatlioglu at the front as the trio broke away from Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati). The gap closed to around three tenths between the pair of them before Razgatlioglu once again extended the gap to claim his first victory of the season, with Rinaldi coming home in second ahead of Rea; closing the gap at the top of the standings to just 20 points. Razgatlioglu’s victory means Yamaha breaks a streak of 15 wins by Kawasaki or Ducati since Race 1 in 2014.

Redding came home in fourth place, the only time in his WorldSBK career that the British rider has not collected a podium finish, with Redding finishing ahead of Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) after the American recovered from a challenging weekend to claim a top five position after a late-race battle with Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK), who rounded out the top six.

Axel Bassani (Motocorsa Racing) continued his impressive weekend on home soil with seventh place, his third top seven finish from Misano and the best weekend of his young WorldSBK career so far. Bassani and Alvaro Bautista (Team HRC) battled it out for seventh place with the Spanish rider finishing in eighth, finishing clear of Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK) and Michael van der Mark (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) who completed the top ten; all five manufacturers taking a top ten finish in Race 2.     

Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) secured 11^th place finish, bouncing back from a Tissot Superpole Race crash to finish ahead of Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team), with the British rider unable to convert a top ten start into a top ten finish, finishing ahead of Kohta Nozane (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team), Tito Rabat (Barni Racing Team) and Eugene Laverty (RC Squadra Corse); the Irish rider securing a points finish in Race 2 after missing out on Saturday’s action after a Free Practice 3 crash.

German rider Jonas Folger (Bonovo MGM Action) finished just outside the points after a wide moment through Turn 4 in the latter stages of the race, but he was able to finish ahead of Isaac Viñales (Orelac Racing VerdNatura), Samuele Cavalieri (TPR Team Pedercini Racing) and teammate Loris Cresson rounding out the classified runners.

Leon Haslam (Team HRC) was the first retirement of the race when he crashed on his Honda machine at Turn 2 in the early stages of Lap 4, while Chaz Davies (Team GoEleven) retired for the third race at Misano with a technical issue.

P1 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK)
“Finally I won. This week we have worked so much for this. All races I got second second second… I said to my team in the last race: “I need to win because I had enough of second, second, second…” But I’m here, I’m very happy. Thanks to my team because this weekend they did an incredible job, because okay, I ride the bike but my bike is also important. We are happy and see you next race. ”

P2 Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
“Yes, I’m really happy. Not perfect but almost. Sincerely this afternoon Toprak had the better pace. I tried my best but my best wasn’t enough to win. It was easy to make a mistake, easy to crash. The last 4 laps I had to say to myself: “It’s okay second”. I hate arriving second but it’s okay. I’m happy about the weekend so I want to thank the fans, the team and everybody all around the world. ”

P3 Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)
“Yeah there was a point in the race I felt like Michael was just under my feet a little bit in some of the corners. But I couldn’t do anything about him to pass, especially in the acceleration from 6,7,8, I lost too much speed. But that was the best I could do. I really struggled this weekend. Myself, I just didn’t bond with the bike. Looking forward going away, analysing all the data, trying to work on our weaknesses and come back at Donington. But the best thing is that we have some fans this weekend, that really puts a smile on my face. Three podiums is a solid weekend”

WorldSBK at Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli” – Race 2

1. Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX WorldSBK)
2. Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +1.286s
3. Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +2.987s
4. Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) +9.102s
5. Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) +10.695
6. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) +13.117s.

Championship Standings (after Race 2, Round 3)

1. Jonathan Rea (GBR) Kawasaki (149 points)
2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (TUR) Yamaha (129 points)
3. Scott Redding (GBR) Ducati (104 points)

Credits : Photos and content courtesy of WORLDSBK.com