Toprak Razgatlioglu, Misano, BMW Motorrad
ROKiT BMW Motorrad’s Toprak Razgatlioglu impressively secured a hat-trick of WorldSBK race victories at Misano with a dominant win in Race 2 in Emilia Romagna, Italy.
After triumphing in the initial two races of the weekend and aiming for a hat trick earlier in the week, Razgatlioglu successfully accomplished his goal from the front position on Sunday afternoon.
However, following a chaotic opening lap, the Turkish rider had to put in extra effort during the early stages.
Bulega narrowly took the lead over Andrea Iannone, followed by Alex Lowes, Andrea Locatelli, and Razgatlioglu, who dropped from pole position to fifth.
But the BMW rider made a bold move into Turn 10 to secure third place.
By the end of the lap, he was in second position after executing a block pass on Lowes at Turn 14, and he had to start chasing down Bulega who had established an early lead due to the commotion behind.
Meanwhile, Iannone’s performance plummeted as he fell all the way to 10th place, struggling with an apparent issue on his Team GoEleven Ducati.
As Razgatlioglu pursued Bulega, who was 1.5 seconds ahead on Lap 4, Lowes was trailing closely behind the BMW rider, just 1.3 seconds back in third place.
Alvaro Bautista was not having an easy time in fourth position, with the reigning champion unlikely to challenge the top three in the early stages.
Razgatlioglu desired a hat-trick of victories, and with 16 laps remaining, it seemed increasingly likely as the Turkish rider closed in on Bulega’s rear wheel.
The BMW ace made his move at Turn 8 with 14 laps to go and successfully fended off Bulega down the back straight to maintain the lead.
No one else could come close to the leading pair, with Lowes falling six seconds behind Bulega, allowing Bautista to apply pressure from behind on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR machine.
With 10 laps remaining, Bautista overtook Lowes to secure third place. However, due to his crash in the Superpole race, the Spaniard was 10 seconds behind the race leader.
Bautista was not the only Ducati rider who could forget about challenging for the win, as Razgatlioglu was lapping nearly eight-tenths of a second faster than second-placed Bulega, extending his lead to over three seconds with eight laps to go.
Razgatlioglu’s lead had increased to four seconds with 5 laps remaining, and the battle for victory seemed all but settled.
However, the fight for third place continued, with Lowes unable to shake off Bautista, and Danilo Petrucci of Barni Ducati engaged in a tussle with Axel Bassani of Kawasaki for sixth place.
From the moment he took the lead, it appeared to be a foregone conclusion, and BMW, a brand that has struggled in WorldSBK for years, entered a state of euphoria as Razgatlioglu crossed the finish line to claim three wins out of three.
The dominant performance gave the Turkish rider a 21-point lead over Bulega in second place, with Bautista settling for third in both the race and the Championship standings.
Lowes secured a commendable fourth place for the Kawasaki Racing Team, while Locatelli led the way for Pata Prometeon Yamaha in fifth.
Just months after a nearly career-ending motocross accident, Petrucci crossed the finish line in an emotional sixth place, winning his battle with Bassani, who finished seventh.
GYTR GRT Yamaha’s Remy Gardner finished eighth ahead of Team HRC Honda’s Iker Lecuona.
Jonathan Rea held onto a top-10 finish ahead of Iannone, with Scott Redding showing significant improvement in 12th place on the Bonovo Action BMW M 1000 RR.
Sam Lowes of Marc VDS Ducati recovered from two DNFs in the first two races to finish 13th, while Tito Rabat of Puccetti Racing Kawasaki and Philipp Oettl of GMT94 Yamaha completed the points-scoring positions.