Superbike Navarre Race 1: Redding takes Rea and Razgatlioglu to the post!

The Ducati rider won the first Superbike race held at the Navarre circuit, after gaining the upper hand over Jonathan Rea. Toprak Razgatlioglu, for his part, limited the damage by making a good comeback to third place.

Scott Redding may be leaving Ducati at the end of the season, but that doesn't stop him from still giving the best of himself for the Borgo Panigale brand. Qualified in second position after promising free practice, the Englishman validated his current good form by going for a well-deserved victory in the North of Spain.

It was number 45 who initially took the holeshot, diving inside the impressive turn 1 to take the advantage over Rea for the first time. Not for long, the Kawasaki rider not having decided to let himself be beaten so easily. The latter thus quickly regained its due a few turns further on without too much difficulty.

 

 

But far from letting himself be defeated, Redding on the contrary left his mark on his rival, taking advantage of all the agility of his Ducati in the last sector to put constant pressure on the six-time World Champion. Little by little, the work of wear and tear would take its effect until Redding managed to take the advantage at the start of the sixth lap on the start/finish straight.

The defending champion then tried to respond, or at least to stay attached to his opponent, but he had to make up his mind after a scare in the 13th lap which relegated him to several seconds behind the leader and future winner. .

 

Razgatlioglu saves the furniture

But if victory slipped from his fingers this afternoon, the main thing is perhaps elsewhere for the Northern Irishman, who takes a few points from his championship opponent Toprak Razgatlioglu. Only a few points, because the Turkish driver was able to recover from a bad situation with a start taken from a distant eighth place on the grid.

But the Yamaha resident was patient to climb back little by little: at the end of the first lap, he was already in fourth position, after some good overtaking following heavy braking of which he has the secret, notably on Tom Sykes and Alex Lowes. The number 54 would subsequently come up against another Yamaha rider, in the person of Andrea Locatelli.

But the Italian would break under the pressure on the seventh lap, leaving Razgatlioglu free rein in third position. Alas for the latter, the gap separating him from Rea would remain stationary until the end of the race, oscillating between two and three seconds.

 

Difficult race for the tricolors

Behind the top 3, Locatelli therefore secured fourth place, ahead of Alex Lowes and Tom Sykes. Michael van der Mark finished seventh, ahead of Axel Bassani, Garrett Gerloff and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. The top 15 is completed, in this order, by Kohta Nozane, Tito Rabat, Leon Haslam, Jonas Folger and Christophe Ponsson.

The Frenchman finally managed to get a point, after the start of the race was spoiled by a collision with Leandro Mercado. His compatriot Lucas Mahias unfortunately did not have the same luck, the Montois who retired after a fall in the fifth round. Among the withdrawals, we can also note those of Chaz Davies and Álvaro Bautista.

Superbike Navarre – Race 1 Results:

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com