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Rachit Thukral

Magny-Cours WSBK: Razgatlioglu wins finale, Rea takes out Bautista

At the start of the race, polesitter Razgatlioglu dropped behind Bautista’s Ducati at Turn 3 before also losing a spot to the Kawasaki of Jonathan Rea.

However, the Turkish rider took little time to regain lost ground and was soon back in the lead of the race, repassing Rea and Bautista in quick succession in the battle between the WSBK’s ‘big three’.

The race turned on its head on the second lap when Rea bizarrely crashed into the side of Bautista’s bike going into Turn 13, leaving the Spaniard on the ground and out of the race.

It marked only his second retirement of the season after his previous DNF at Magny-Cours and undid his work from Saturday, when he romped to a comfortable win while both Rea and Razgatlioglu crashed out of the race in unrelated incidents.

With Bautista retiring from Sunday’s finale and Rea picking up a long lap penalty for the collision, it should have been an easy victory for Razgatlioglu given his form in recent races.

But the Yamaha rider surprisingly fell behind both the Motocorsa Ducati of Axel Bassani and the works Panigale V4 R of Michael Ruben Rinaldi, with the latter moving into the lead of the race on lap 8 of 21.

Although Razgatlioglu was able to repass Bassani soon after, it wasn’t until lap 14 that he could make finally pass Rinaldi at Turn 5 to assume the lead of the race.

The Turkish rider ultimately took the chequered flag by 2s over Rinaldi and 4.7s from Bassani, the latter clinching his second podium of the weekend.

The victory, Razgatlioglu’s eighth of the year, puts him 30 points behind Bautista with five rounds to go, and 17 clear of six-time champion Rea.

Following his collision with Bautista, Rea struggled for pace and continued to tumble down the order, with his penalty leaving him fifth at the finish behind his Kawasaki teammate Alex Lowes.

Sixth place went to BMW’s star 2022 signing Scott Redding, while the top 10 was rounded out by Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha), Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha), Loris Baz (Bonovo BMW) and Iker Lecuona (Honda).

Eugene Laverty, Michael van der Mark, Xavi Vierge and Leandro Mercado joined Bautista on the list of retirements. 

Magny-Cours WSBK - Race 2 results:

Cla # Rider Bike Laps Gap
1 1 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu Yamaha 21  
2 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 21 2.024
3 47 Italy Axel Bassani Ducati 21 4.742
4 22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes Kawasaki 21 5.084
5 65 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 21 10.679
6 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding BMW 21 11.955
7 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 21 15.188
8 31 United States Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 21 15.443
9 76 France Loris Baz BMW 21 16.870
10 7 Spain Iker Lecuona Honda 21 18.367
11 5 Germany Philipp Oettli Ducati 21 25.740
12 44 France Lucas Mahias Kawasaki 21 33.872
13 29 San Marino Luca Bernardi Ducati 21 38.188
14 2 Italy Roberto Tamburini Yamaha 21 41.389
15 3 Japan Kohta Nozane Yamaha 21 42.657
16 23 France Christophe Ponsson Yamaha 21 50.863
17 99 Oscar Gutierrez Kawasaki 21 54.487
18 52 Czech Republic Oliver Konig Kawasaki 21 1'04.981
19 35 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin Honda 21 1'13.308
  50 Ireland Eugene Laverty BMW 11  
  97 Spain Xavi Vierge Honda 9  
  60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark BMW 2  
  36 Argentina Leandro Mercado Honda 2  
  19 Spain Alvaro Bautista Ducati 1  
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