Toprak Razgatlioglu wins Donington WSBK taking championship lead as Rea crashes

Yamaha rider Toprak Razgatlioglu moved to the top of the World Superbike championship standings with victory in the final race of the weekend at Donington Park, as Jonathan Rea crashed out of the lead.

Razgatlioglu and Kawasaki rival Rea were engaged in an entertaining dogfight for the lead, both riders having each won a race each so far this weekend, until the reigning champion made a rare error and suffered a low-side fall at Coppice on lap 11 of 23.

That paved the way for Razgatlioglu to score his third win in four races and turn a 23-point deficit to Rea into a narrow two-point advantage.

Following the damp Superpole race earlier in the day, conditions had dried out entirely by the start of the second full-length encounter of the weekend.

Rea maintained his lead heading into the first corner, but Razgatlioglu shot up the inside from his grid slot of sixth into second and was soon challenging the Kawasaki rider for the lead.

The Turkish rider made his move at Coppice on lap four, but could never make a break from Rea, only managing to pull around seven tenths clear before being reeled in once again.

On lap 10, Rea took advantage of Razgatlioglu running slightly wide through Coppice to retake the lead – but at the same place the following lap he made the error that would cost him the championship lead.

From that point on, Razgatlioglu was unchallenged, leading home a Yamaha 1-2 by 2.2s ahead of the GRT machine of Garrett Gerloff.

American rider Gerloff had earlier made a pass on BMW man Tom Sykes to move into what had been third place prior to Rea’s crash, matching his personal best WSBK result in second.

Sykes held off a recovering Scott Redding to score a second consecutive podium finish, while fourth for Redding marked the first points of a miserable weekend for the Ducati rider.

Michael van der Mark (BMW) came out on top in a battle against former teammate Alex Lowes (Kawasaki) to score fifth place, while Chaz Davies concluded a difficult weekend aboard the Go Eleven Ducati in seventh.

Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Ducati) was eighth, ahead of Honda pair Leon Haslam – who dropped from fourth on the grid – and Alvaro Bautista.

Following his crash, Rea was able to remount his battered Kawasaki and finish 20th, marking his first non-score since last year’s opening race of the season at Phillip Island.

WORLDSBK DONINGTON PARK, GREAT BRITAIN – RACE RESULTS (2)