WorldSBK Misano SP Race Results | Toprak Razgatlioglu sprints to first 2022 win

Toprak Razgatlioglu has secured his first win of the 2022 WorldSBK Championship season after sprinting clear of a feuding Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea to win the Misano Superpole Race.

The Turkish rider went on the offensive in the short ten lap encounter in the knowledge he needs to recover ground lost from a second DNF of the season during Saturday’s first race.

Getting the hole-shot into Turn 1 from the front row, though Rea nosed ahead mid-way around the opening lap, Razgatlioglu wrestled the lead back through the first turn complex.

Forcing Rea into the clutches of Bautista, the Ulsterman’s new distraction from behind was the impetus he needed to make a break and establish a lead.

Indeed, with Rea and Bautista getting embroiled in their own tussle around the sweeping Italian circuit, Razgatlioglu was 1.1secs clear by the end of lap two. Extending it to more than two seconds by the end of lap three, he was clear to reel off a much needed first victory of his faltering WorldSBK title defence.

Behind him, Rea and Bautista’s scrap continued into lap three and four, eventually going the Ducati man’s way, albeit leaving him with too much work to reel in the Yamaha ahead.

Still, it helps extend his margin out to 24 points over third place man Rea, while Razgatlioglu makes minor in-roads to the top, the gap now 74 points to Bautista.

Honda enjoyed arguably its strongest race of the season as Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona hauled themselves into a fourth and fifth place finish, putting them in a stronger position for this afternoon’s Race 2.

Andrea Locatelli notched up another top six finish behind them, getting the better of top privateer Axel Bassani, while Alex Lowes and Garrett Gerloff completed the points’ paying positions in eighth and ninth to secure their spots among the front three rows for Race 2.

Missing out on points, Michael Ruben Rinaldi battled for the podium early on before slipping to tenth, just ahead of the leading BMW of Scott Redding.

Elsewhere, Loris Baz suffered a tumble from the Bonovo BMW, while Kohta Nozane also fell from the GRT Yamaha.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Misano, Italy | Superpole Race RESULTS