Portimão 2024, Race-1: 11 consecutive victories for Razgatlioglu | FP

A record-breaking victory

Race 1 at Portimão took place at an unusual time compared to the other races held this season, but this did not stop the fans from repeatedly challenging for the victory, which for the eleventh time in a row were resolved in favor of Toprak RazgatliogluA success that is worth a record for the BMW rider, who thanks to this victory reaches Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea at the top of the ranking of riders with the most consecutive victories in the history of Superbike.

Race report

A statement that, judging from the first half of the race, actually seemed to escape the #54, overtaken at the start by Alex Lowes and Danilo Petrucci in a start that turned out to be disastrous for Bautista, who slipped to 13th position. A top-3, followed by the second BMW of Dutchman Michael van der Mark, able to take advantage of a mistake by Bulega, remained unchanged until the 4th lap, that is, until the spectacular double overtaking by Petrucci at the end of the finish line straight that allowed the Barni team rider to take the lead.

A battle between the top three that saw its second chapter two laps later, in this case with Razgatlioglu overtaking Lowes for second place, with the Kawasaki Brit subsequently excluded from the podium zone by Van der Mark. The most exciting battle on the track, however, was between Petrucci, chasing his first Superbike win, and Razgatlioglu, who was also motivated to conquer the record of consecutive wins. A head-to-head that saw the Turkish rider attack the Terni native on several occasions, always braking at turn 1, but without succeeding or suffering the immediate counter-offensive of ‘Petrux’. Numerous overtaking attempts that, in the end, rewarded Razgatlioglu on the 12th of the 20 scheduled laps, all while Bautista was concretizing the comeback behind them. The Spaniard, out of the top 10 after the start, gradually climbed up to the podium zone, first overtaking Van der Mark and finally Petrucci, thus conquering 2nd place (again at the end of the long starting straight) with three laps to go and taking his 100th career podium. Race 1 concluded, with the top-5 completed by an excellent Garrett Gerloff in fourth position followed by Lowes and Van der Mark, also here after a good battle for 4th place, Superbike will return to the track tomorrow following a program practically identical to today’s in terms of times. While the Superpole Race will start at 3:45 PMexactly as happened for this afternoon’s Superpole, the green lights of Race-2 they will light up at 19:00with this last appointment also broadcast live on free-to-air TV8.

Portimão 2024, Race 1: Finishing Order