Razgatlioglu loses Superpole win after Kawasaki protest
Toprak Razgatlioglu’s WorldSBK championship advantage of 13 points has been reduced to seven following a protest from Kawasaki.
The protest was regarding the Superpole race in which Razgatlioglu has now been deemed to have exceeded track limits by the smallest of margins - a decision that took over four hours to be made.
It means the wait for a first career clean-sweep for Razgatlioglu goes on.
In the final race of the weekend, Razgatlioglu and Rea were locked in a battle that produced some of the hardest but fair racing we’ve seen thus far in 2021.
Slight contact was made on more than one occasion as turns five and 12 became the overtaking hotspots.
After several attempts at taking the lead failed, Razgatlioglu finally made his race two winning overtake stick at turn five with 10 laps remaining.
While Rea made significant improvements from yesterday’s race one to today, the six-time world champion was still unable to better the Yamaha man.
Speaking after the decision was made, some strong comments came in from Pata Yamaha Team Principal, Paul Denning who said: "It’s disappointing of course. This weekend we saw incredible fighting between the two championship protagonists.
"For our team, the first time we’ve won all three races. For Toprak, the first time he’s won all three races.
"This was caused by a protest from Kawasaki. It’s disappointing because honestly, genuinely, it’s not something we would’ve done.
"When a rider has gained zero advantage and you’re talking about 5mm of the rear tyre just touching the green, something that race direction had seen themselves, checked from the live footage, decided there absolutely was not a problem because there was not any advantage and it wasn’t clear he was on the green.
"But after they received the protest, they had to use all the tools they have, and this includes the onboard footage from Jonathan’s bike.
"They were able to see that there was a small amount on the green. If this is the way Kawasaki want to play, then maybe the sporting atmosphere will change a little bit."
