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Magny-Cours WSBK: Razgatlioglu beats Rea, disaster for Redding

Yamaha rider Toprak Razgatlioglu took a convincing victory in the opening World Superbike race of the weekend at Magny-Cours after an early pass on championship rival Jonathan Rea.

Watch: WSBK: Razgatlioglu beats Rea and opens up slender title lead

After initially conceding the advantage, Razgatlioglu forced his way back ahead of chief adversary Rea at the Adelaide hairpin on lap four of 21 before pulling away for a seventh race win of the year.

Having gone into the Magny-Cours round level on points with Kawasaki man Rea, Razgatlioglu is now five points ahead in the title race.

Razgatlioglu got the initial jump off the line to lead into Turn 1, but a better run through Estoril and on to the back straight for Rea enabled the six-time world champion to get back ahead through Adelaide.

Slight contact between Alex Lowes and Razgatlioglu temporarily promoted Michael Ruben Rinaldi's Ducati to second, but by the end of the opening lap Razgatlioglu was back ahead.

Rea's time at the head of the field also proved short-lived, as Razgatlioglu steadily caught up and then muscled his way back ahead on the fourth lap at Rea and immediately pulled clear.

In the end, Razgatlioglu took the chequered flag 4.4 seconds ahead of Rea for his third win around Magny-Cours - the track where he took his first-ever WSBK wins two years ago on a Puccetti Kawasaki.

Lowes looked well set for his first podium finish since July's Donington Park round after repassing Rinaldi for second on the second lap, only to crash with five laps to go at the 180 corner.

That promoted Razgatlioglu's Yamaha teammate Andrea Locatelli to third place, the rookie taking his third podium of the season.

Rinaldi was by some distance the best Ducati finisher in fourth in an absolutely torrid race for his teammate Scott Redding, who started eighth and finished in 12th after a late crash.

Redding struggled to make progress early on but dropped down the order by running wide at Adelaide on lap five. While battling outside of the top 10, he crashed with three laps to go at Chateau d'Eau before remounting.

Scoring four points for 12th, Redding is now 59 points down on Razgatlioglu in the championship.

BMW's top finisher was Michael van der Mark in fifth ahead of Honda's Alvaro Bautista and satellite Ducati runners Chaz Davies (Go Eleven) and Axel Bassani (Motocorsa), who swapped places at the final corner.

Tom Sykes also dropped down the order in the opening laps on the second factory BMW from third on the grid, coming home down in ninth ahead of Leon Haslam's Honda and Garrett Gerloff on the GRT Yamaha.

MIE Honda rider Leandro Mercado was the only non-finisher besides Lowes after a crash, although Lucas Mahias (Puccetti Kawasaki) didn't start following his crash in Superpole.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time
1 54 Turkey Toprak Razgatlioglu
Yamaha -
2 1 United Kingdom Jonathan Rea
Kawasaki 4.467
3 55 Italy Andrea Locatelli
Yamaha 10.285
4 21 Italy Michael Ruben Rinaldi
Ducati 13.283
5 60 Netherlands Michael van der Mark
BMW 15.535
6 19 Spain Alvaro Bautista
Honda 17.824
7 7 United Kingdom Chaz Davies
Ducati 20.067
8 47 Italy Axel Bassani
Ducati 20.127
9 66 United Kingdom Tom Sykes
BMW 20.150
10 91 United Kingdom Leon Haslam
Honda 23.763
11 31 United States Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha 23.977
12 45 United Kingdom Scott Redding
Ducati 38.551
13 23 France Christophe Ponsson
Yamaha 44.742
14 53 Spain Tito Rabat
Ducati 45.494
15 32 Spain Isaac Viñales
Kawasaki 45.612
16 94 Germany Jonas Folger
BMW 55.985
17 3 Japan Kohta Nozane
Yamaha 59.560
18 84 Belgium Loris Cresson
Kawasaki 59.642
22 United Kingdom Alex Lowes
Kawasaki
36 Argentina Leandro Mercado
Honda

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Edition

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