Toprak Razgatlioglu claims maiden WorldSBK treble after dominant race two win

Looking to complete his first official WorldSBK treble - Razgatlioglu won all three races at Magny-Cours in 2021 before eventually losing the Superpole race win due to exceeding track limits - the reigning world champion made another perfect start as he led into turn one. 

This time around Jonathan Rea was able to stay right with Razgatlioglu, in fact, the six-time world champion appeared to be the quicker of the two during the opening lap. 

That continued to be the case on lap two before a move was made by Rea coming out of the Esses chicane [lap three]. 

But in typical Razgatlioglu fashion, the Yamaha rider snapped straight back on the brakes heading towards the Melbourne Loop. 

As the two leaders continued to battle, Alvaro Bautista was keeping touch with his championship rivals in third.

With five laps gone it was Scott Redding in fourth who was the quickest rider on track. The BMW rider began closing the gap to Bautista who was struggling to stay with the front two.

Rea, who was eager to get back in front, delivered another brilliant switchback at the chicane in order to take the lead, but just like lap three, Razgatlioglu came straight back at the Kawasaki rider heading into the penultimate corner.   

This allowed Bautista to quickly close the gap as the Ducati rider suddenly looked very comfortable in third. 

There was an early retirement for wildcard rider Leon Haslam as the Brit looked dejected in his Pedercini Kawasaki pit box.

With Razgatlioglu continuing to set a red-hot pace at the front, only Rea and Bautista were able to live with the Turkish star as Redding slowly began to drop into the clutches of Michael Rinaldi. 

With 11 laps to go, Redding made a mistake in the final sector which allowed Rinaldo to pounce. 

With just over half the race complete, Razgatlioglu produced two stunning laps to begin pulling away from both Rea and Bautista. Razgatlioglu increased his lead to over seven tenths, while Bautista was a further second back from Rea. 

A seven tenths lead then grew to 1.2 seconds in just one lap as Razgatlioglu was again in a league of his own during race two. 

With the race win out of reach, Rea was instead coming under intense pressure from Bautista who gained six tenths on one lap. 

Appearing to be much quicker, Bautista took his opportunity into the Melbourne Loop with four laps remaining, as Rea was under real threat of losing out on a podium altogether. 

Closing in on the Kawasaki rider was Rinaldi, who like Bautista, appeared to have very strong late race pace. 

Despite Rinaldi’s best efforts of closing the gap, Rea eventually held on for third as Razgatlioglu completed his first WorldSBK treble.