Razgatlioglu Just Misses French
WorldSBK Hat Trick
T
he end of the WorldSBK week-
end at Magny Course was
mired in controversy, with Toprak
Razgatlioglu just missing out on
the triple, partly because of a pro-
test filed by his rival KRT team.
In Superpole, Rea beat his
shared record of seven con-
secutive pole positions (shared,
of course, with Ben Spies and
Yamaha in 2009) thanks to an
eighth straight Superpole win,
at a new track best pace of
1:35.683. It was Rea's 35th Su-
perpole career win, his 31st with
Kawasaki, and for the manufac-
turer itself, the 100th WorldSBK
Kawasaki Superpole.
In race one, held in warm and
dry conditions, Rea and fourth-
placed qualifier Alex Lowes (KRT)
made a committed push to get
away, and Rea succeeded for a
while, until eventual race winner
Razgatlioglu got past him and
finally broke Rea's challenge.
Lowes was a certainty for a
podium but then came under
pressure from the chasing Andrea
Locatelli (Pata Yamaha with Brixx)
and eventually fell, as he asked
too much of his used-up front tire.
Locatelli was thus third, Mi-
chael Ruben Rinaldi (Aruba
Ducati) fourth and Michael van
der Mark (BMW Motorrad) fifth.
In the Superpole race,
Razgatlioglu and Rea ended up
on a man-to-man fight, with Rea
pushing and probing and eventu-
ally passing. Razgatlioglu went
past again and the run into the
final Lycée section was off the
scale in tension.
Razgatlioglu got it done best
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Toprak Razgatlioglu was
denied a triple win after
getting docked a position
for exceeding track
limits—but not by much—in
the Superpole race. He
won both full races.
