Toprak Razgatlioglu dominates again as Yamaha locks out Estoril podium
Yamaha claimed a historic 1-2-3 results in the short Superpole Race sprint at Estoril with Toprak Razgatlioglu claiming his second victory of the weekend ahead of Garrett Gerloff and Michael van der Mark.
Having eased away from the pack to win by more than three seconds in the full length race one on Saturday, from pole position Razgatlioglu made no mistake again over the 10 lap sprint to reel off his third victory of the season.
Getting an excellent start from the top spot - his first in WorldSBK - the Turkish rider was never challenged thereafter, crossing the line almost two seconds up on Garrett Gerloff, who reeled off the third podium of his rookie season with another eye-catching performance.
With Razgatlioglu and Gerloff running a lonely first and second from start-to-finish, the fight for third entertained instead with Chaz Davies and Michael van der Mark - looking to make amends from his crash in race one - duking it out for the final podium spot.
Some robust overtakes - including more than one moment of contact - would see the pair swap positions constantly before van der Mark eventually got the jump on the penultimate lap, completing a memorable 1-2-3 for Yamaha.
Fresh from wrapping up his sixth WorldSBK Championship title, Jonathan Rea once again made swift progress from his 15th place starting position to cross the line fifth. He will hope the better starting position for race two will allow him to sign off 2020 with his 100th career WorldSBK win.
Similarly, Scott Redding made excellent gains from the very back of the grid to claim sixth position, with Alvaro Bautista bouncing back from his race one retirement to edge out Honda team-mate Leon Haslam in seventh and eighth.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi claimed the final point in the drag to the finish line against Puccetti Kawasaki’s Xavi Fores, with Tom Sykes 11th on another trying day for BMW.
