Toprak Razgatlioglu is the King of Donington: dominator of all the free practice sessions and holder of the Superpole, the championship leader does not give up the lead even for a corner and in Race 1 he triumphs with an 11 second advantage over Alex Lowes. On the day of his 46th victory, the Turk wins with the widest gap of his career in Superbike.
No one has ever managed to get close to Razgatlioglu, untouchable for anyone: the “first of the others” is the aforementioned Lowes, second with Kawasaki. The British rider climbs onto the podium in the first home heat after a solid race and precedes a fierce and incredibly combative Alvaro Bautista.
The reigning world champion, starting from 11th place, makes a great comeback and, between overtaking and great brawls, manages to conquer the third step of the podium. The Aruba.it Racing – Ducati standard bearer snatches third place from his teammate. Nicolò Bulega, starting from the front row, settles for fourth place, almost two seconds behind the Spaniard.
Time wasted in the final for Bulega, who after being overtaken by Bautista, went wide and came back, thus losing any chance of fighting to try to reclaim the podium. rookiewho appeared to be in more difficulty than his pursuers in the second half of the race, still managed to get the better of a reborn Scott Redding: in his home race, the British rider started from the front row and, despite fighting for the top positions during the first heat, was forced to stop towards the end due to a puncture.
Redding ended up wide like Bulega after Bautista overtook him during the brawl with the two Ducati riders. Nothing to be done for the Bonovo rider, who could have been the best of the independents, but he stopped in the gravel. Once again, the parc fermé of the best independents was won by Danilo Petrucci, seventh at the finish line despite a shoulder that was still not 100%.
The Barni rider closes Race 1 behind the Yamaha duo: Jonathan Rea reacts with pride and crosses the finish line in fifth place, ahead of his teammate Andrea Locatelli, sixth. Race 1 is good for the Iwata manufacturer, placing almost all its riders in the top 10; Dominique Aegerter is eighth while Remy Gardener is tenth. Michael van der Mark with the other official BMW fits in between the two.
Race 1 was definitely uphill for Andrea Iannone, who despite riding a comeback race was unable to catch up with the top ten. The Goeleven rider was 11th, after starting from 19th place. Saturday was also complicated for the other two Italians: Axel Bassani was 12th, while Michael Ruben Rinaldi was only 15th. The Hondas were also in trouble, with Xavi Vierge falling on the third lap while Iker Lecuona did not go beyond 13th position. Tarran MacKenzie also fell, suffering a concussion and being declared unfit. Race 1 was one to forget for Alex Lowes, who went long when he was in the group fighting for the top positions and was only last at the checkered flag.
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