SBK, Magny-Cours, Superpole Race: Razgatlioglu achieves the double

After the first victory of Toprak Razgatlioglu, now leaving for Yamaha as teammate of Michael van der Mark, Johnny Rea's objective is to consolidate his lead in the Championship. Álvaro Bautista seems too busy in his conflict with his boss at Ducati to counter it. This Sunday Johnny Rea started from pole position with Michael van der Mark and Leon Haslam completing the front row. Michael-Ruben Rinaldi formed the second with Loris Baz and Tom Sykes. Álvaro Bautista started from fifth.

Loris Baz wanted to improve his result from the day before: “ I was too close to the podium to be satisfied with Saturday's result! A few months ago, I wouldn't have thought that I would be disappointed to finish fourth here at Magny-Cours, because it's my best result on this track in a long time. It was a great race. At first it was really tricky with the track and, as we don't have experience with the YZF-R1 here at Magny-Cours, we only changed the settings a little after FP3 and it wasn't not perfect. This made the bike quite difficult to ride, especially in an area where I lost the rear so many times. When Tom Sykes passed me, I tried everything to stay with him, to try something on the last lap, but then I almost did a high side at the 180 degrees and I wasn't close enough . It's a shame, but it's still a fourth place and the whole team was happy – maybe more than me – so we'll try again for the podium this Sunday. »

Toprak Razgatlioglu savored his victory: “ I think I had good conditions during the race because in the wet I wasn't fast. The Superpole qualifying was very bad in 16th position but I'm happy because in the dry I thought I had a chance of getting on the podium. In the last two laps I felt it was possible to win, so I pushed. In the last lap I pushed hard and got my first victory. Sunday ? I don't know, but if it's still dry, I'll try to win. »

Jonathan Rhea wanted his revenge: “ I made a small mistake in sector 2. With a few laps to go, I was convinced that by keeping a good pace everything would be fine, but this mistake allowed Toprak to make a maneuver in the sector 3. This is how it happens. So if I try to look from the outside, from a championship perspective, it was a strong race. But I'm also a little disappointed because I did the heavy lifting to put myself in a good position at the end, and we couldn't finish the job. We have two more chances today. »

At the start of the Superpole race, the sun shone on the Magny-Cours circuit. The air temperature was 18° and that of the track 22°. The best start was the work of Jonathan Rea who preceded Michael van der Mark, Leon Haslam, Tom Sykes, Michael-Ruben Rinaldi and Loris Baz.

Van der Mark took first position with his Yamaha ahead of the two Kawasakis of Rea and Haslam. Sykes followed closely in his BMW, while Rinaldi fifth was overtaken by Razgatlioglu, Lowes and Davies. Loris Baz went tenth and Sylvain Barrier nineteenth.

Rea took the lead 8 laps from the checkered flag, ahead of Van der Mark, Razgatlioglu, Haslam, Sykes and Davies. Rea was ahead of Van der Mark, Razgatlioglu, Haslam, Sykes, Lowes, Bautista, Lowes and Baz.

Rea, Razgatlioglu and Van der Mark stood out slightly from the chasing group led by Davies ahead of Haslam, Sykes, Bautista, Lowes and Baz. Davies, in fourth, was 1.6 behind the three leaders, ahead of Haslam and Bautista at 2.5.

At halfway, Razgatlioglu was glued to Rea's rear wheel, 0.9 ahead of Van der Mark, 1.8 ahead of Davies, and 4.1 ahead of Bautista, Haslam, Lowes, Sykes and Baz.

Razgatlioglu took the lead with 4 laps to go but Rea remained in contact. Van der Mark was at 0.7, Davies at 1.7 and Bautista at 4.1. Barrier was in eighteenth position.

Razgatlioglu took the lead on the last lap, but Rea passed him under braking in Adelaide... before Razgatlioglu overtook him coming out of the hairpin! Razgatlioglu won his second race ahead of Rea, Van der Mark, Davies, Bautista, Lowes, Baz and Sykes. Barrier finished eighteenth.

Superpole race results:

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

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