Toprak Razgatlioglu storms to Donington victory as Alvaro Bautista crashes

A brilliant start from the WorldSBK champion saw him lead into turn one, however, Jonathan Rea was quick to mount a challenge as he attempted to capitalise on a small error for the Yamaha rider. 

Razgatlioglu ran slightly wide coming out of turn eight which allowed Rea to get alongside heading into the chicane, but  with the Kawasaki rider positioned to the outside, Razgatlioglu came out leading.

Rea, who was compromised coming out of the chicane, then lost out to Alex Lowes and series leader Alvaro Bautista, before Iker Lecuona slithered up the inside of him after the KRT rider got his braking all wrong for the ‘Melbourne Loop’. 

Rea quickly regained third after overtaking team-mate Lowes, who began to lose pace pretty quickly with the top three, however, getting through on Bautista was proving to be much tougher. 

The six-time world champion began lining-up a pass coming out of the chicane, only for the rear of his ZX10-RR to come around and nearly throw him overboard. 

After several failed attempts at turns 10 and 11, Rea finally made the move stick at the final corner (Goddards).

Although it appeared as though Rea had more pace than Bautista, the Aruba.it Ducati rider was sticking with the home favourite. 

While Rea set about catching race leader Razgatlioglu, Scott Redding was quietly putting together his best race of the year for BMW.

Up to fourth after early moves on Lowes and Lecuona, the British rider now held a four tenth advantage over Lowes with 12 laps to go. 

At the front, Rea’s attempts of catching Razgatlioglu were becoming nothing more than hope as the Yamaha rider continued to pull away. 

With a lead of over 3.5 seconds, Razgatlioglu was in total control as Bautista began applying pressure to Rea.

The championship leader made a move at turn nine, but ran wide in doing so which allowed Rea to regain P2.

A mistake from Rea heading into Goddards, the same corner he previously overtook Bautista at, allowed the Spaniard to finally gain second position.

Drama with eight laps to go as Bautista crashes out 

As Bautista began to pull clear of a struggling Rea, the Ducati rider made his first mistake of the season as he crashed at the final corner.

Pushing the front extremely hard, Bautista tried to make the corner despite carrying too much speed and subsequently tucked the front tyre. Bautista was eventually able to get his Panigale V4 R going again before returning to pit lane and retiring. 

With Redding now struggling for rear grip, Lowes started to reel the BMW rider back in for third. And to no surprise Lowes attempted his move heading into the final corner, pulling off a lovely overtake to gain the final podium spot. 

An impressive ride from Italian rider Axel Bassani saw him finish as the top Ducati, one place ahead of factory rider Michael Rinaldi. 

WorldSBK champion Razgatlioglu wins!

In typical Razgatlioglu style, the Turkish star pulled off a sublime stoppie across the line to take his second win of the season and first in a feature-length race.