Estoril, the third round of the world championship and the scene of a new challenge in a Superbike championship that is confirmed as fought and full of unknowns. Starting with the weather, which played a key role especially on Sunday. The three contenders for the title, however, did not allow themselves to be intimidated and gave a spectacle by giving incredible battles that left hanging up to the checkered flag.
Alvaro Bautista leaves Portugal as world leader, with a 17-point lead over direct rival Jonathan Rea. Thus the duel of 2019 is proposed again, when the two competed for the title with the Spaniard who dominated and the Kawasaki rider forced to succumb. This year, however, the story is very different and the two seem to be definitely on the same level, giving in fact very hard-fought races in which the winner is decided at the last corner.
It was no different in Estoril, where the two made a difference on all the others, with the tip of the balance that this weekend however leans towards Rea. The Northern Irishman has in fact won two out of three races, breaking a new record: with the triumph in the Superpole Race (later replicated in Race 2), the six-time world champion has become the driver with the longest streak in history, 12 years, 11 months and 1 day, surpassing Noriyuki Haga by just one day.
Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Racing Team WSBK
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The Ducati rider therefore shows up at his team’s home appointment as a man to beat, while Rea arrives at Misano as a chaser. The round that marks the arrival of summer, that of the Romagna Riviera, is always highly anticipated by the riders not only for the atmosphere but also for the confirmations on the track. In front of the Ducati fans, Alvaro Bautista will have to give further proof of the solidity shown so far, which allows him to be at the top of the general classification and continue to dream big.
It is in fact a different Bautista the one facing 2022 with the four-cylinder. More awareness, maturity and knowledge of the championship are certainly the key factors that influence this progression process. The Bautista-Ducati duo now seems to really work, with a dominance that is not excessively drastic, but certainly more concrete. The Estoril weekend also proved to the same rider his skills in hand-to-hand combat, a weak point according to him compared to his two great rivals.
Of course, in the two races on Sunday, the Aruba rider bowed to Rea, but he proved that he can fight on equal terms. Estoril, however, is the fiefdom of the Kawasaki rider, who once again shows that he wants to recover at all costs the scepter he gave up last year. The six-time world champion, precisely in the decisive moment of qualifying, made a few mistakes too many in Race 1, then redeemed himself in the following two races with top-class performances.
Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.it Racing Ducati
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
We are somehow reliving the duel already seen in 2019, with the difference that this year there seems to be a big absentee: Toprak Razgatlioglu. The Turkish is presented at the starting line of this season as a world champion, he is the man to beat if you want to take the Superbike crown, but at least in this first phase of the season the feat does not seem so impossible.
The defense of the title by the Yamaha rider, however, appears increasingly difficult. If Aragon and Assen were two tracks not very congenial to the characteristics of the R1, Razgatlioglu was looking for redemption in Portugal. Estoril was supposed to be a friendly round, from there his world championship would start again, the Turk arrived on the Lusitanian track with the aim of hitting the first success of the season, but he goes away once again with his mouth dry.
Victory is still missing in Razgatlioglu’s palmarès this year, she was very close in Race 1, but she escaped due to a mistake on the last lap (the Turkish saved a certain fall with a circus maneuver like Marc Marquez). All in all, the Estoril round went better than the previous ones, having conquered a second position (as in the Superpole Race at Assen) which allowed him not to lose too much ground from the first two.
However, this is neither the goal nor the real potential of Toprak, who has shown himself to be the usual aggressive driver and ready to fight as long as the vehicle allowed him. The reigning world champion is currently paying for a technical gap with respect to Ducati and Kawasaki which does not allow him to express himself fully in order to constantly enter the fight. Razgatlioglu is still third in the general classification, but he is 35 points behind Rea, second, and even 52 points from the leader Alvaro Bautista.
Toprak Razgatlioglu, Pata Yamaha WorldSBK
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
#SBK #Razgatlioglu #struggling #world #championship #question #Rea #Bautista