Superbike Most Race 1: Razgatlioglu wins against Redding, Rea bites the dust!

The Turkish driver pulled out all the stops on the last lap to overcome a conquering Scott Redding. Jonathan Rea was forced to retire after a surprisingly messy race.

For its first in Superbike, the Most circuit kept all its promises with a thrilling first event and the victory of Toprak Razgatlioglu at the end of the suspense against Scott Redding. The Pata Yamaha rider, as is often the case, took the best start at the start by braking hard, the secret of which was to take the holeshot against Jonathan Rea.

Qualifying fourth on the grid, Tom Sykes tried to do the same thing but completely missed and shot straight through the loophole that presented itself in front of him. We then believed that victory was going to be decided between the two strong men of the championship, the two men exchanging positions several times, while Redding stood ready to board just behind.

 

 

The number 45 ultimately did not wait long to take advantage of a missed attack from Rea on “Razga” to gain a first place on the second lap, before pushing his advantage at the start of the third lap at the first corner on the Turkish pilot.

Now in the lead, Redding then took advantage of the fight continuing behind him to escape and widen the gap. Behind him, Razgatlioglu managed to counter Rea's attacks at the cost of further heavy braking, his opponent seeming somewhat delicate with his tires and veering wide in certain corners.

 

Double error for Rea

In these conditions, the situation continued to deteriorate for the defending champion who ended up making a first mistake after halfway through the race by falling. Rea still managed to restart, with a lot of delay, but this time fell a second time in a crippling manner four laps from the goal in turn 20.

Two errors to which Rea is not accustomed, and which cost him dearly since at the same time Razgatlioglu put constant pressure on Redding to regain first place. In this sense, the last lap turned out to be particularly lively, Razgatlioglu trying for the first time to go inside with heavy braking, all this to veer wide and let Redding uncross.

 

 

Regardless, the Yamaha rider had a second opportunity to win his case in the final stretches, this time with much more success, narrowly remaining in the lead at the finish line despite the best acceleration of his opponent's Ducati. A maneuver which, however, annoyed Redding, who did not fail to deplore Razgatlioglu's rough behavior on the track at the Parc Fermé.

New podium for Locatelli

Behind them, we find Andrea Locatelli on the third step of the podium, author of a no-nonsense race to sign his second top 3 this season. Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who started eighth, also had a good race to finish just off the podium.

Axel Bassani for his part completes the top 5 ahead of Garrett Gerloff and Álvaro Bautista. Leon Haslam, Tom Sykes and Marvin Fritz complete the top 10, while Christophe Ponsson puts in his best performance this season to collect the five points awarded by 11th place.

The race was marked by several retirements, that of Rea of ​​course, but also of Jonas Folger due to engine failure and of Loris Cresson, victim of a heavy fall mid-race in turn 20. Kohta Nozane also lost control of his machine at the very start of the event, as did Alex Lowes and Chaz Davies, the latter who swerved to avoid Lowes' bike which was returning to the middle of the track.

 

Superbike – Most – Race 1 results:

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com