VOLUME 56 ISSUE 39 OCTOBER 1, 2019 P57
some top names eventually came
to grief in the opener, and some
of them did nothing but give each
other grief.
The braking zones were rife
with hard passes and contact,
but a special prize goes to the
contract between Chaz Davies
(having electronics issues as
he braked into the fast downhill
entry to turn 15) that clattered
Razgatlioglu's elbow so hard you
could almost hear it on TV. Da-
vies ran off and crashed. As for
Razgatlioglu, he got going twice
as hard and won his first race.
He eventually ran down
the seemingly safe Rea, and
completed the job of passing
after Rea said he made a small
mistake that allowed Razgatlioglu
to draw closer, and then close in
enough to win by 0.2 seconds.
"I think I had the right condi-
tions in the race because in the
wet I am not fast!" said Razgatlio-
glu. "Superpole qualifying was
very bad in 16th position, but I
am happy because in the dry,
and I thought I had a chance at
the podium. In the last two laps
I felt it was possible to win, so I
pushed. On the last lap, I pushed
hard and took my first win."
Rea was second, and another
dry-weather third place came
for Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad)
after he re-passed the potential
hometown podium hero Loris Baz
(Ten Kate Yamaha).
In the Superpole race,
Razgatlioglu got his second win
and 10th podium. This race was
held over the usual 10 laps, and
featured a new lap record set by
the race-one winner Razgatlioglu
with a 1:37.018 on lap two.
He carried on his pace well
and took the lead on lap seven.
He held off Rea, only just, for
a margin of victory of 0.319
seconds. Michael van der Mark
made up for his disappointing
late crash while leading race one
to score third place, with Chaz
Davies (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati)
fourth and a closing Bautista fifth.
In the big final 21-lap race
of the day, there was another
fight between Rea and one of
his potential usurpers—but not
Razgatlioglu this time.
On lap two, Bautista was com-
ing up behind Razgatlioglu when
the Turkish rider's rear tire spun
up. He did not highside but his
bike carried on spinning, all of
which saw the closely following
Bautista unable to avoid him.
They hit, fell, and it was game
over for both. And championship
over for Bautista.
No race victory for Bautista,
but it was Rea who overcame
the blue streak that was Van der
Mark out front. They each led,
and then Rea led and took a final
advantage of 0.862 seconds. It
was still the greatest margin of
victory of the day, which showed
how close things were at Magny
Cours. The top five in race two
finished within five seconds of
each other.
Sunday delivered the best
Magny weather, Saturday the
Toprak Razgatlioglu
took his first two
WorldSBK wins
in France, the
first Turkish rider
to triumph in the
category.
