The final act of the Round of Argentina of the Superbike could have closed the question inherent to the riders’ world title, with Toprak Razgatlioglu in the conditions of being able to win his first world championship. For the Turkish of Yamaha, however, the matter will be postponed in just under a month in Indonesia, having failed to conclude the Race-2 of El Villicum in addition to the final third place. The championship leader, in fact, had to surrender to Ducati’s excellent form Scott Redding, winner of the test after the success almost a few hours earlier in the Superpole Race, precisely to the detriment of the Yamaha rival.
The English rider, therefore starting from second position on the starting grid, had initially lost his position in favor of the Kawasaki of Jonathan Rea, very skilled in shooting brilliantly when the green light comes on and outclassing the British at the braking point of the first corner, even if he was unable to complete the same attack on Razgatlioglu. From that moment on, the leading trio made up of the Turkish, the reigning Northern Irish champion and the future winner of Race-2 gave birth to an exciting and spectacular series of overtaking and counter-overtaking, with the three candidates to conquer the title that they have alternated several times at the command of the race.
The turning point of the Argentine race, however, was consolidated with six laps from the conclusion: while Redding increased his gap on his pursuers with fast laps in the role of leader of the classification, Rea conquered the second position after a long chase at Razgatlioglu, in turn disadvantaged by a track not entirely congenial to the characteristics of his bike. From that moment, Rea has thus distanced the Turkish, but was unable to make up ground from Ducati. In all this, the excellent performance of the Axel Bassani, with the 21-year-old from Veneto who has always remained close to the leading group maintaining his fourth position from the start to the checkered flag.
🥇 Yes !!! 🥳🥳🥳
Your Race 2 winner at the #ARGWorldSBK 🇦🇷 round! 😍 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 #ForzaDucati pic.twitter.com/QeWU7wGxNO
– Ducati Corse (@ducaticorse) October 17, 2021
With this result, Scott Redding wins the El Villicum Race-2 and still keeps the games open in view of the final round of this season in Indonesia. Climbing to the lowest step of the podium behind Rea and Redding himself, Razgatlioglu now has an advantage in the overall standings of 30 points from the standard bearer of Kawasaki, with Redding who can mathematically hope to still be able to win the title thanks to a gap now reduced to 66 lengths. The 2021 championship will inevitably be decided in Mandalika.
WSBK | Round Argentina, Race-2: results