MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

World Superbike race one was twenty two dry laps around twenty one corners nobody has much experience on. 

Scott Redding bogged at the start as Toprak Razgatlioglu stole the lead from Jonathan Rea while Tom Sykes missed the first turn and took to the slip road, rejoining in fifth place behind Scott Redding and Michael Ruben Rinaldi. The leading trio of Razgatlioglu, Rea and Redding started to escape from Rinaldi, Sykes and Andrea Locatelli. 

Jonathan Rea went offline to try to pass Toprak Razgatlioglu, but this let Scott Redding past, and Redding made the most of this to set the fastest lap and gun past Razgatlioglu down the start finish straight to take the lead into turn one. Rea followed Redding through a few turns later, pushing Razgatlioglu down to third. Michael Ruben Rinaldi led Andrea Locatelli and Tom Sykes as Redding set another lap record on lap three.

On lap four, Jonathan Rea set the lap record as Alex Lowes crashed out with Chaz Davies, both sliding at the same corner in unconnected incidents. The leading trio of Redding, Rea and Razgatlioglu had a two second lead over Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Andrea Locatelli by lap six and at the end of the lap, Scott Redding escaped at the front, leading Rea and Razgatlioglu by a second by the middle of the lap. Toprak Razgatlioglu started applying pressure to Jonathan Rea and Rea went wide around turn fourteen and Razgatlioglu took second place from Rea. Rea took second back only to have Razgatlioglu to outbacker him into turn one of lap eight. Razgatlioglu chipped away into Redding's two second lead with Rea glued to his rear tyre, with Razgatlioglu a tenth or two quicker than Redding once he'd got past Rea, but Razgatlioglu couldn't break free of Rea's Kawasaki. 

On lap ten, Andrea Locatelli, held up by the Ducati in front of him, finally made a pass work on Michael Ruben Rinaldi to take fourth place. Locatelli immediately matched the pace of the riders in front of him, a second clear of Rinaldi after one lap, but he couldn't make up any time over the riders ahead of him.

At half race distance, Scott Redding had over a second and a half over Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jonathan Rea who were within a few hundredths of each other lap after lap, but at the start of lap thirteen, Razgatlioglu and Rea were a second off Redding, lapping over half a second quicker than the leader. Locatelli was six seconds off a podium place with Rinaldi two seconds further back. 

Jonathan Rea, on Razgatlioglu's tail, lost the front into turn one, a bump bouncing the rear as he tipped in, sliding the right side of his bike into the gravel and flipping it over its seat. He picked his Kawasaki up and recovered in eleventh place. Razgatlioglu got the information that Rea was out and upped his pace to close up on Scott Redding. Toprak Razgatlioglu set the lap record without a green bike breathing down his neck and sat in Redding's wake. 

Andrea Locatelli was nine seconds off Redding and Razgatlioglu and in a podium spot two seconds behind, fending off Axel Bassani with Garrett Gerloff a second and a half behind, setting his personal best lap of the race. Rea was still in eleventh place, seven seconds off Marvin Fritz in tenth.

Scott Redding and Toprak Razgatlioglu were over ten seconds clear of Locatelli as they sat at the lead, separated bu just three tenths of a second with five laps to go as Jonathan Rea crashed out again, only at turn twenty this time, once again losing the front. As Rea crashed, Razgatlioglu forced his way past into turn fourteen as Redding went wide. Redding took the lead back into turn one of lap twenty.

Scott Redding took clean sweeping lines around the faster corners with Razgatlioglu spending rubber on more aggressive lines to close up, showing the difference in their bikes' geometries and tyres. Jonathan Rea watched on, half out of his leathers at a marshall point, sat drinking a water.

On the last lap, Redding started taking defensive lines, sticking his limbs out, Razgatlioglu made a mad lunge into turn fifteen and overshot, letting Redding switch back to the inside and push back past, but into turn twenty, the second last corner, Razgatlioglu stuck his Yamaha into the apex aggressively claiming the corner. Redding bounced off him and tried to fight back, but Razgatlioglu had the drive to hold the lead into and out of the last turn. Redding closed on the straight, but he didn't have enough, finishing merely four hundredths behind. 

Thirteen seconds behind the action, Andrea Locatelli took a lonely third place to round out the podium, ahead of a three-way fight between Michael Ruben Rinaldi, Axel Bassani and Garrett Gerloff. 

Toprak Razgatlioglu's victory, with Jonathan Rea claiming no points, puts him within twelve points of the top spot in the championship. Scott Redding, very unhappy about Razgatlioglu's penultimate corner pass, ends the day sixty one points off Rea in the lead and forty nine off Razgatlioglu. Andrea Locatelli slowly climbs up to ninth place with his second career podium, fifteen points off Garrett Gerloff in sixth place. 

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