Race report
World Superbike Villicum
Argentina WSBK: Razgatlioglu outduels Bautista in Superpole race
Defending World Superbike champion Toprak Razgatlioglu narrowly defeated Alvaro Bautista to claim victory in a nail-biting Superpole race in Argentina.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Oct 23, 2022, 3:48 PM
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Razgatlioglu initially led the 10-lap sprint from pole position on the Yamaha, but slipped to second behind Jonathan Rea on the third tour when the Ulsterman sent his Kawasaki up the inside into Turn 7.
However, a first WSBK win for Rea since Estoril in May wasn’t to be as he made a mistake on lap 6 and dropped to third, making Razgatlioglu and Bautista the primary contenders for the victory again.
It turned out to be a titanic battle between the two as they traded multiple positions multiple times, each eager to get the upper hand on the other.
Ultimately, it was Razgatlioglu who prevailed in the battle with a race-winning move on the penultimate lap, with Bautista’s best efforts in the final 4.2km of the race not enough to prevent the Yamaha rider from claiming an emphatic win at Circuito San Juan Villicum.
The final margin between the two was only 0.6s in Razgatlioglu’s favour and the victory also puts the Turkish rider on pole position for Sunday’s final race of the weekend.
Razgatlioglu now sits 77 points behind Bautista in the standings, although he already admitted in the aftermath of his Saturday crash that his championship hopes are “finished”.
Third place in the race went to Rea, who set the fastest lap late in the 10-lap sprint but ultimately couldn’t regain sufficient ground to make up for his earlier error.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi was best-of-the-rest on the factory Ducati in fifth, some five seconds off the lead, while Alex Lowes finished now too far behind in fifth on the Kawasaki.
Iker Lecuona was sixth on the best of the Hondas, just 0.3s behind Lowes, while Motocorsa Ducati’s Axel Bassani was the top independent rider in seventh.
Lecuona’s teammate Xavi Vierge led a pack of bikes in eighth including Bonovo BMW’s Loris Baz and Yamaha’s Andrea Locatelli, the last-named just missing out on a points finish in 10th.
Scott Redding endured a lacklustre outing en route to 14th, three places behind his factory BMW teammate Michael van der Mark.
Argentina WSBK - Superpole results:
Cla Nº Rider Bike Gap 1 1 Toprak Razgatlıoğlu Yamaha 2 19 Álvaro Bautista Ducati 0.613 3 65 Jonathan Rea Kawasaki 0.856 4 21 Michael Ruben Rinaldi Ducati 4.357 5 22 Alex Lowes Kawasaki 5.062 6 7 Iker Lecuona Honda 5.418 7 47 Axel Bassani Ducati 8.714 8 97 Xavi Vierge Honda 10.676 9 76 Loris Baz BMW 10.752 10 55 Andrea Locatelli Yamaha 10.907 11 60 Michael van der Mark BMW 12.459 12 12 Xavi Fores Ducati 14.827 13 31 Garrett Gerloff Yamaha 15.417 14 45 Scott Redding BMW 17.709 15 5 Philipp Öttl Ducati 19.308 16 3 Kohta Nozane Yamaha 20.627 17 36 Leandro Mercado Honda 22.760 18 44 Lucas Mahias Kawasaki 22.958 19 50 Eugene Laverty BMW 25.234 20 52 Oliver König Kawasaki 26.232 21 27 Maximilian Scheib Honda 27.217 22 39 Marco Solorza Kawasaki 46.065
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