WSBK Superbike Jerez Race 2: Razgatlioğlu at the top, Rea at his worst

The Turkish driver won again this Sunday, after mastering his subject and repelling attacks at the end of the course from Scott Redding. Álvaro Bautista climbs to his second podium this season.

It is still too great to say that the turning point of the 2021 Superbike season took place during Race 2 in Jerez, but it is clear that Toprak Razgatlioğlu has just gained a certain ascendancy over his championship rival Jonathan Rea.

The Turkish driver indeed achieved the double this weekend, by winning the second race of the day contested in Andalusia, barely three hours after his first success obtained in the morning. But unlike the first event run this Sunday, this second act did not give rise to a new duel between the two contenders for the crown, far from it.

Summary of the results of the 2020 edition:

WSBK Superbike Jerez	July / August 2020	September 2021
FP1	1'40.249 Loris Baz	1'40.074 Toprak Razgatlioğlu
FP2	1'40.325 Michael Ruben Rinaldi	1'39.671 Jonathan Rea
FP3	1'39.639 Michael van der Mark	1'39.461 Toprak Razgatlioğlu
Super poles	1'38.736 Scott Redding	1'38.512 Toprak Razgatlioğlu
Race 1	Redding, Rea, Razgatlioğlu	Razgatlioğlu, Rea, Redding
Warm up	1'39.535 Jonathan Rea	1'39.668 Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Superpole race	Rea, Redding, Van der Mark	Canceled
Race 2	Redding, Davies, Razgatlioğlu	Razgatlioğlu, Redding, Bautista
All time lap record	1'38.736 Scott Redding	1'38.512 Toprak Razgatlioğlu

 

Lack of rhythm for the Kawasaki

We have known for several rounds that the Kawasaki experiences serious rhythm problems when the mercury rises, and this was particularly glaring this afternoon, the Northern Irishman being quite simply unable to follow not only his opponent of at Yamaha, but also to support the pace of the other riders behind him.

 

Starting grid for Race 2:

 

The six-time World Champion thus gradually slipped down the hierarchy, barely managing to salvage a fifth place at the finish, under pressure from Axel Bassani. This paved the way for Razgatlioğlu's tenth victory this season, the same victory total as Rea's.

Behind him, Scott Redding took advantage of his third place on the grid (we will remind here that the latter was determined by the results of the first race contested today) to position himself as Razgatlioğlu's first opponent.

 

 

The Ducati rider, who won two of the three races held in Spain last year, even had a serious option for victory in the final laps, when he managed to take the advantage of a loop over the Turkish pilot. Alas, the latter showed temerity and took his due to head towards a new triumph, which now allows him to display a 20-point lead in the championship over Rea.

The Kawasaki rider, for his part, saved the furniture as much as possible, initially keeping his back before finding a little rhythm at the end of the event to finish in fifth place after passing Rinaldi again.

The Briton still lost 14 points to Razgatlioğlu in the championship, and finished behind Álvaro Bautista, author of a new podium after the one won in Catalonia last week, and Andrea Locatelli.

 

New top 10 for Loris Baz

Behind Rea, we therefore find Bassani, who is ahead of his compatriot Rinaldi and Michael van der Mark. The top 10 is completed by Loris Baz and Garrett Gerloff, while three retirements are to be noted, namely those of the Frenchman Christophe Ponsson, the Japanese Kohta Nozane and the Belgian Loris Cresson.

Leandro Mercado also made a mistake but managed to get back on track to grab the point for 15th place. Finally, we will note the withdrawal from this second race of the weekend for Alex Lowes, who is still suffering from his wrist following his accident in Montmeló during the last round, and who had already failed to keep the pace during the Race 1 run in the morning.

 

Superbike Jerez – Race 2:

Classification credit: WorldSBK.com