SBK | Portimao: Toprak scores four hat-tricks in Race 2, Bautista crashes

First a record, then another and, at the end of the weekend, Toprak Razgatlioglu made it four. In Race 2, the championship leader left no chance to his opponents, going on to win his 13th consecutive race and signing his fourth double in a row, making a clean sweep after Misano, Donington and Most.

However, it wasn’t all easy for the BMW rider, who had to keep up with three riders: in the early stages of the race he kept Alex Lowes at bay (even losing a wing in the decisive overtaking move), but as the laps went by he battled with the Ducatis. Alvaro Bautista’s Panigale V4R seemed ready to make prey of the M 1000 RR, but the reigning champion slipped while trying to threaten the Turk’s first position.

Thus, the dream of winning Race 2 faded away for Bautista, who returned to the track but crossed the checkered flag in 19th position. The Spaniard handed over the baton to his teammate Nicolò Bulega, who in the meantime had managed to overtake Lowes. rookie he tried until the end and didn’t give the championship leader and direct rival in the standings a moment’s respite.

But he could do nothing against an enlightened Toprak, who passed under the checkered flag with just 35 thousandths of an advantage over Bulega. Despite a difficult weekend conditioned by physical problems, the rookie of the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team finished in second place, conquering an important podium in terms of the championship, where he is at -92 points. Closing the podium we find Alex Lowes, who with the Kawasaki is demonstrating great solidity and in the early stages of Race 2 also tried to interrupt Razgatlioglu’s streak of consecutive victories.

Andrea Iannone managed to put the pieces of a weekend that started badly and redeemed himself from the first long race by taking fourth place in Race 2. Despite remaining just outside the podium, the GoEleven team rider was the best of the independent riders, preceding Danilo Petrucci. The Terni rider on the Barni team tried to take the lead of the race in the first laps, but gradually dropped back until crossing the finish line in fifth position.

Petrux he still managed to keep Jonathan Rea at bay, who put the Portimao round in the archives with a sixth position. If in the top three places we have three different brands (BMW, Ducati and Kawasaki), to find the first of the Yamahas we have to go all the way to the Northern Irishman, who all in all managed to complete a good race. Behind Rea we find Michael van der Mark, explosive in the first laps but only seventh at the finish line. Another BMW in eighth position, we are talking about Garrett Gerloff, while Scott Redding continues to struggle and fails to catch the group of the top ten, finishing 14th.

At the end of the weekend, the conclusions are drawn and Honda can smile, because in Race 2 it can also boast a rider in the top 10: Xavi Vierge took ninth place, finishing ahead of Dominique Aegerter, tenth. The other official Honda, that of Iker Lecuona, struggled more to cross the checkered flag in 13th place. Great difficulties also for all the other Italians: Andrea Locatelli was unable to go beyond 11th place, while Axel Bassani and Michael Ruben Rinaldi finished Race 2 in 15th and 16th position respectively.