Toprak Razgatlioglu enjoyed a perfect weekend at Autodrom Most. The ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team rider now holds a 64 point championship advantage after his tenth consecutive victory.
Tissot Superpole Race Highlights
Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) led the opening three laps of the Superpole Race. Once the Italian was overtaken by Razgatlioglu he settled into a battle with his teammate Alvaro Bautista. On the final lap Bautista crashed while attempting an overtake at the first corner. Bulega was forced to avoiding action and rode through the gravel trap. He returned to the track in second position and held that to the flag
Bautista’s crash led to his first retirement of the season. The double WorldSBK champion endured a pointless day at Most and now falls 104 points behind Razgatlioglu in the championship standings
Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) climbed his seventh podium of the campaign. After crashing in Race 1 the Englishman bounced back to be rewarded with a podium and a front row start for Race 2
A last lap one position penalty for Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) dropped the Dutchman to ninth position and the final points paying position
Race 2 Highlights
Razgatlioglu’s tenth victory in a row was as commanding as expected. Taking the lead from Bulega with a move on lap 4 he eventually opened a lead of three seconds as the chequered flag marked the end of a 22 lap race
Bulega further cemented his position as second in the championship with his tenth runner-up finish of the season. The Italian ended the race over three seconds behind Razgatlioglu
With a hard fought third place finish Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) finished on the podium for the first time since the opening round of the year in Australia. The Yamaha rider enjoyed a race long battle with Michael van der Mark and Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team)
Gardner made it three top five finishes at the Czech Round with a fifth place finish in Race 2. It was the Australian’s best round since Assen
A first corner crash saw Bautista and Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team) removed from the proceedings after they clashed with each other. The Italian rider is now four points behind Andrea Iannone in the battle for Independent honours with the Team GoEleven rider recovering from being forced wide by the crash at turn one. He dropped to 18th position but eventually finished in ninth position
Key Points:
Pole position: Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team)
Race 1 winner: Toprak Razgatlioglu
Race fastest lap: Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 1’32.100s
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P1 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team
“I’m really happy. I want to thanks my team, we did an incredible job this weekend. In every session we improved and finally, we were really strong. In Race 2 I was not pushing hard because I needed to save the rear tyre. Finally, we won again. It’s another three wins this weekend and ten wins in total for us now! I am looking at the record for consecutive wins and I still need two more for this. Thanks to all fans and see you next year.”
P2 | Nicolo Bulega | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati
“I did the maximum again today. I didn’t make any mistakes but it was difficult today, Toprak was again very fast. I started well and I tried to follow him and to open a gap to the riders behind. It’s another P2 and I’m happy.”
P3 | Andrea Locatelli | Pata Prometeon Yamaha
“We’re back on the podium. We’ve been working really hard. During this weekend, honestly, the confidence with the bike was not really quite high. It was difficult but the guys worked really hard yesterday and this morning, and they give me an incredible bike.”
DNF | Alvaro Bautista | Aruba.it Racing – Ducati
“In Race 2 I had a really good start. I was like a rocket because I arrived to first corner in third or fourth place. I saw Toprak and Nicolo in front of me and then when I went into the corner, I saw Gardner on the inside. I had just to keep the line to not touch him but at that moment someone hit me and I crashed. I reviewed the image on the TV. And, it’s clear that there is not too much space for Petrucci, but he was behind, so he has to take care about others in front of him, no? This kind of corner is very tricky because we arrive very fast from the start and then we brake too hard. I was a bit unlucky but fortunately physically I’m ok. We are not performing like last year. This weekend something changed and we improved the feeling a lot for the next races. We now at least have a base for starting the next races.”