Turk gun takes 10th Donington victory as chaos strikes early in action-packed WorldSBK race 1
Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) raced at the front of the first 23-lap WorldSBK race at Donington from start to finish, and finally took another race win at the old English circuit.
Early race leader and front row starter Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team) crashed out of the lead at the fast left hander going down Craner Curves, giving the lead to Razgatlioglu, who then applied unstoppable pace against his rivals.
In a Lap One/Turn One accident Yari Montella (Barni Spark Racing Team Ducati) and Sam Lowes (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team Ducati) made contact and fell, with Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) also clipped and taken out. Despite trying to restart, his bike had shed some bodywork and he had to retire.
After all these initial incidents, the race settled down with Razgatlioglu extending his race lead over Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) until the last lap, when the gap from first to second ended up at 6.5 seconds.
Third place went to Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team Ducati), who was 11 seconds back on Razgatlioglu.
Off podium, Andrea Locatelli (Pata Maxus Yamaha) placed fourth and Jonathan Rea (Pata Maxus Yamaha) had a confidence-boosting fifth, after winning a personal duel with the sixth placed Scott Redding (MGM BONOVO Racing Ducati).
Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Garrett Gerloff (Kawasaki WorldSBK Team) had relatively strong races, in seventh and eighth place respectively, and even harrying the riders in front on the final laps.
Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) and Andrea Iannone (Team Pata GoEleven Ducati) rounded out the top ten.
Only 16 riders finished the 23-lap race.
With two more WorldSBK Races to go at Donington, Razgatlioglu is now only four points behind Bulega in the championship fight.
