Toprak Razgatlioğlu could have been the big winner in accounting terms at the end of this 11th round in Portugal, but a retirement due to a mechanical problem during the last race allowed Jonathan Rea to stay afloat in the championship.
We came close to chaos this weekend in Portimão, Portugal, during the 11th round of the Superbike championship. Jonathan Rea, already mistreated in the general classification before arriving in the Algarve, actually thought he would lose everything at the end of Race 1 and the Superpole Race, both of which he finished in the gravel trap.
Meanwhile, his opponent and championship leader, Toprak Razgatlioğlu, certainly managed to win during the first event but did no better than sixth during the Superpole Race, whose legally reduced scale only granted him four small extra sesame. A very meager jackpot since it was then the Turk's turn to retire during Race 2, thus allowing Rea to purely and simply cancel his victory won earlier in the weekend.
Missed opportunity for Razgatlioğlu
In the end, although the Yamaha rider has certainly increased his lead in the championship, it is only by four points, and he therefore still remains within gunshot of his opponent from Kawasaki. This is enough to reserve two last suspenseful rounds, in Argentina then in Indonesia, even if the person concerned would undoubtedly have preferred to take the break at the start of the very last straight of the season.
If Rea came close to being penalized but finally managed to extricate himself from a situation which seemed hopeless on Sunday in the middle of the day, the good deal was achieved by Scott Redding. The Ducati rider did not win in the Algarve, but he finished second in each of the contested events, which allows him to come back to 30 units of Rea and 54 of Razgatlioglu. No doubt insufficient to still play for the title, even if the Englishman remains mathematically in the game, but a resounding sign of the latter's good form at the end of the season.
The former MotoGP rider is ahead of his teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi in the championship, the latter who is tied with Andrea Locatelli. It is therefore the status quo which prevails between the two Transalpines, who had already landed on equal points in Portugal at the start of the weekend. We then find Michael van der Mark in sixth place. The Dutchman did well by winning the Superpole Race on a wet track, a result which allowed him to overtake Alex Lowes in the general standings.
The latter, still suffering from pain in his right wrist, preferred to withdraw after Race 1, which he finished in ninth place, so as not to unduly traumatize his joint and thus give himself more time to recover. The Kawasaki rider was undoubtedly also burned by the case of Lucas Mahias, forced to throw in the towel for the rest of the season at the end of the round run in Jerez, around ten days ago, for a similar injury.
Gerloff still in the lead among independents
A little further down the hierarchy, we can note the entry into the top 10 of Axel Bassani. The Italian had a very solid weekend, scoring points in each of the races contested. He thus passes Tom Sykes, withdrawn for the second consecutive round, even if he still remains a good distance from Garrett Gerloff (24 points) in the prospect of the title of best independent driver.
Beyond the top 10, Leon Haslam reaps the fruits of a successful weekend in Portugal, marked in particular by a fifth place at the end of Race 1, which allows him to pass Chaz Davies in the general and take from 12th place.
Two podiums in Loris Baz’s hands!
Loris Baz, for his part, made a resounding entry into the top 15, thanks to his two podiums obtained at the end of Race 1 and the Superpole Race. Among the manufacturers, no notable change to report, Yamaha preserving the lead with a roughly similar lead, now peaking at 13 points over Ducati and 48 over Kawasaki.
In the Supersport category, championship leader Dominique Aegerter certainly did not win a single race in Portimão, but he ensured the essentials by maintaining a clear margin against his rival Steven Odendaal.
The latter finally returned to victory on Sunday afternoon, thus achieving his first success since Race 1 in Most, in the Czech Republic at the beginning of August, but this awakening seems far too late to call into question the march of his Swiss opponent towards the title, which leads him by 54 units in the general classification.
Back in #WorldSBK and back on the podium!
Incredible performance from @lorisbaz in Race 1!#PRTWorldSBK 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/avHJiDpFRv
- WorldSBK (@WorldSBK) October 2, 2021
Cluzel and Di Sora bring two victories to France
Finally, in Supersport 300 the title has finally found a taker, with the coronation of Adrian Huertas. It was the very last round of the season for the category, after the Spaniard missed his chance last week at Jerez. But this time the Iberian managed to make it happen this weekend, with a victory in the very last event contested, following that of Samuel di Sora the day before. The Bayonnais thus brought its first victory to France in the category.
It will be noted that Di Sora was not the first to make the Marseillaise resonate this weekend, since Jules Cluzel had finally returned to victory during Race 1 contested on Saturday, almost two years after his last success, in October 2019 in Argentina. The end of the tunnel for the Auvergne, which has had more than its share of black bread this season, and which finds itself on a magnificent launching pad for the end of the 2021 financial year when the South American round will be precisely the next to take place, in two weeks on the San Juan Villicum route.
