A scorching Imola welcomes the World Superbike riders on Sunday’s races, which opens with the Superpole Race, as usual. Among the bends of the Santerno, the show is not lacking and Toprak Razgatlioglu signs his masterpiece by beating Alvaro Bautista with a stratospheric overtaking on Piratella in the final stages. The reigning world champion is second and precedes an excellent Andrea Locatelli, who closes the podium in third position.
Ready go! The best starting point is precisely that of the Italian from Yamaha, who takes the lead and tries to dictate the pace by leading the one-two from R1. A wait-and-see Alvaro is third, but the show has yet to begin: it is when the Aruba standard-bearer and the Turkish decide to push that the tussle ignites. Positions alternated, but soon Toprak and Bautista began to make the difference on their pursuers, leaving Locatelli in third position hunted by Jonathan Rea.
If in the second half of the race it seemed that we had to move towards a new triumph for Bautista, who took the lead, Toprak changed the cards on the table and got dangerously close until he launched the attack on the penultimate lap. The Turk thus takes the lead, defending his position until the checkered flag, where he arrives with a two-tenth advantage.
An important Superpole Race for Andrea Locatelli, who once again shows his great growth and, after having commanded the first stages of the race, completes the podium even if he pays a gap from the first two of 1.7 seconds. The rider from Bergamo takes the second official Yamaha to the podium, starting Sunday on the right foot and confirming his consistency.
Opaque race instead for Jonathan Rea, always close to overtaking Locatelli, but never decisive and ready to launch the attack. The Kawasaki rider is fourth at the finish line after trying to undermine the Yamaha rider. The six-time world champion precedes Michael Ruben Rinaldi, fifth with the Ducati of the Aruba team. Behind him is Axel Bassani, best of the independents and sixth at the finish line, just over three seconds behind the winner.
Kawasaki decidedly subdued in this Superpole Race, with Alex Lowes eighth at the checkered flag. Behind him is Danilo Petrucci, eighth with the Ducati of the Barni team, while the BMWs of Scott Redding and Loris Baz complete the top 10, ninth and tenth respectively. Still great difficulties for the GRT team, which sees Remy Gardner 11th and Dominique Aegerter only 14th at his debut on this track.
The Hondas are also still struggling, with Iker Lecuona 13th after being overtaken right in the final stages by Philipp Oettl, who thus gains 12th position with the Ducati of team Goeleven. Even 19th Xavi Vierge. So the Italians: Gabriele Ruiu and Lorenzo Baldassarri are 17th and 18th respectively, Roberto Tamburini is 21st.
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