2021 Catalunya World Superbike Race Two Result: Red Flags Again

World Superbike race two took place with temperatures of 26ºC air and a 44ºC track, missing last year's winner Chaz Davies due to his crash in the Superpole race. Two bad crashes at turn one brought out the red flags to reset the race to a nineteen lap race with he same starting grid.

Toprak Razgatlioglu led into turn one ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Alvaro Bautista with Jonathan Rea behind them. Alex Lowes and Lachlan Epis crashed out in the first turn with Lachlan's bike rolling over Lowes in an incident with Leon Haslam, Jonas Folger and Christophe Ponsson, but no red flags were brought out. Jonathan Rea made his way to third place after the first lap as Scott Redding close don fourth-placed Alvaro Bautista. At turn one again, Tom Sykes and Lucas Mahias came together and ended their weekends. This did bring out the red flags, as Sykes was slow to get up. 

Tom Sykes was conscious as he was taken to the medical centre for a check up for a head injury.

The restart was missing Alex Lowes as he was being checked up as the grid lined up. Toprak Razgatlioglu once again took the lead onto turn one, ahead of Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Jonathan Rea. Rea took second into turn five. Fourth place was held by Alvaro Bautista with Andrea Locatelli and Garret Gerloff behind him. Rea and Razgatlioglu swapped the lead back and fourth. 

On lap two, Rinaldi punched through clean air to pass Rea and Razgatlioglu down the straight, but Razgatlioglu took the lead into turn one. Lap two, and Michael Ruben Rinaldi took the lead and a fastest lap of 1'42.566, but Razgatlioglu was Razgatlioglu into turn one and he took the lead. Jonathan Rea watched on as the leading trio were covered by a quarter of a second. 

Andrea Locatelli fought off Alvaro Bautista's attempts to pass, with Garrett Gerloff right behind the pair, only for Scott Redding to take sixth place off Gerloff.

Lap four, Rinaldi, making the best of a great last corner, took the lead into turn one, leading Razgatlioglu and Rea. Scott Redding took fifth briefly, but he went too wide and Bautista was able to slip back under him for the exit of the turn. By lap five, Andrea Locatelli had joined the leading trio with Alvaro Bautista, Scott Redding and Garrett Gerloff a second behind.

Scott Redding once again passed Alvaro Bautista only to go wide allowing Bautista to take fifth back. Lap seven, and the leading trip of Rinaldi, Razgatlioglu and Rea dropped Andrea Locatelli and Redding tried to pass Bautista again as Garrett Gerloff dropped back, unable to match Bautista and Redding's pace. Another lap and the gaps out front expanded a little spreading the top five out, with Alvaro Bautista the only rider being troubled as Scott Redding continued to try to make the turn one pass stick. 

At half race distance, nine and a half laps completed, Michael Ruben Rinaldi leads by three tenths of a second with Toprak Razgatlioglu in second place two seconds clear of Jonathan Rea in third. Andrea Locatelli latched on the back of Rea with Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding right behind them. Rea was half a second a lap slower than the three riders behind him and rode defensively to stop any passing attempts, but losing touch with the riders in front of him. Lap eleven, and Jonathan Rea was passed by Locatelli into turn one, but he blocked Bautista and passed Locatelli back. Rea was on the wring line into turn eight and Locatelli took third back as Bautista went off track to let Redding past. Redding then made quick work of Rea and was followed by Bautista in to turn one of lap tweelve. Rea couldn't get the bike turned into turn one and he ran off the track to avoid Scott Redding dropping to sixth place.

To add to Rea's woes, Razgatlioglu took the lead from Rinaldi, putting him in the position to take the championship lead back. 

At the start of lap fourteen, Toprak Razgatlioglu led Michael Ruben Rinaldi with Andrea Locatelli and Scott Redding three seconds behind. A further second and a half behind, Alvaro Bautista led Jonathan Rea as Garrett Gerloff and Axel Bassani looked on a second further back. Michael Ruben Rinaldi picked up a bit of plastic rubbish on his front wheel, red and white barrier tape flailing from his left fork, which didn't slow him down as he took the lead from Razgatlioglu into the first turn of lap fifteen of nineteen.

Andrea Locatelli in third place, two and a half seconds behind the leaders, had Scott Redding on his tail, but he seemed like he could hold his podium place as Redding and Alvaro Bautista followed him. Jonathan Rea was almost three seconds behind Bautista with Garrett Gerloff two seconds behind him. 

At the start of the penultimate lap, Michael Ruben Rinaldi led Toprak Razgatlioglu by almost two seconds with Scott Redding almost two seconds behind as he powered past Andrea Locatelli down the straight, leaving the Yamaha rider to deal with Alvaro Bautista behind him. Bautista took fourth place, powering past Locatelli to chase Scott Redding on the last lap. Scott Redding caught Toprak Razgatlioglu on the last lap, with more tyre left than the Yamaha in front, but Razgatlioglu held second place by under two tenths of a second. Alvaro Bautista missed out on a podium by a further two tenths of a second, almost a second clear of Andrea Locatelli. Jonathan Rea held onto sixth place over three seconds behind. Scott Redding through he had an extra lap to pass Razgatlioglu but was disappointed to see the flag. 

Michael Ruben Rinaldi's win on the slightly harder tyre, the same as Scott Redding, helped his team in the championship, holding back Razgatlioglu's lead to sixty points over Redding and cementing his own fourth place, seventeen points ahead of Andrea Locatelli.

Toprak Razgatlioglu's second place put him just one point ahead of Jonathan Rea in the championship fight.

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