WorldSBK Most Race 2 Results | Razgatlioglu back in title hunt with punchy win

Toprak Razgatlioglu sent out a statement of intent to his 2022 WorldSBK title rivals with a convincing second victory of the weekend in race two at Most.

Doubling up on Sunday after victory in the Superpole Race, Razgatlioglu prevailed in an engrossing tussle with Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea, the title-fighting trio engaging in arguably their scrappiest three-way on-track tussle of 2022.

Starting from pole position by virtue of his earlier win, Razgatlioglu nailed his customary good start to lead into the tricky Turn 1 from Bautista, while Rea found himself bullied down to fifth at one stage, but would end lap one in fourth.

Up to third at the start of lap three, Rea quickly latched onto Razgatlioglu and Bautista, but was lucky not to get sucked into Michael Ruben Rinaldi’s crash ahead of him at Turn 1 on Lap 4, the Italian having slipstreamed past the Kawasaki briefly before folding the front.

Out front, Razgatlioglu briefly looked capable of pulling clear, but with Rea on his tail, Bautista promptly turned up the pace to see all three riders circulating closely after five laps.

Capitalising on his superior acceleration aboard the Ducati, Bautista attempted to get a run on Razgatlioglu at the start of lap six, only to out-brake himself and take to the escape road. He was promptly followed by Scott Redding doing the same, the BMW rider all-but-scuppering hopes of getting into the podium fight.

Forced to cede second place to Rea, the Kawasaki man assumed the fight against Razgatlioglu, mimicking his rival's late braking style to overtake him into Turn 1.

Despite getting a taste of his own medicine, Razgatlioglu coolly returned the favour at the start of Lap 8, only for Rea to again snake through at the same point on Lap 10.

Their feuding, however, had invited a recovering Bautista back into their battle and the Spaniard swiftly punished them again for doing so, streaming past Razgatlioglu at the start of Lap 11 before repeating the method on Rea to take the lead on Lap 12.

With Bautista able to defend through the twistier sections before pulling clear on the home straight, Rea appeared to have little answer to the Spaniard in second. Having held station for a few laps in third place, Razgatlioglu turned up the wick with eight laps to go by relieving Rea duties to take on the chase for Bautista.

Needing just one more lap to dip beneath Bautista at Turn 20, when Razgatlioglu resisted Bautista on the brakes into Turn 1, it was all the opportunity he needed to get the hammer down through the more technical section of the circuit.

Immediately turning in the fastest lap, Razgatlioglu rapidly pulled a gap to Bautista in second, who in turn was comfortably dropping Rea in third.

It was the order they would remain to the finish, Razgatlioglu scoring his sixth win in eight races, a much needed streak of success that has revitalised a title defence that looked down and out after Misano.

While Bautista cushioned the blow in second, it was a disappointing results return for Rea, who now hasn’t won a race since Estori. 

As the riders head into the summer break, Bautista heads Rea by 31 points, with Razgatlioglu now only 38 points adrift of the table topper having been 79 points down prior to Donington Park.

After losing touch with the front pack with his escape road moment early on, Redding trailed in a lonely fourth place, ahead of Axel Bassani, the independent rider reeling off a fourth consecutive top five result.

Behind him, Garrett Gerloff was on course for his best finish of the season having worked his way up to sixth, only for a rear tyre delamination on the final lap to drop him to the back of the field.

His misfortune promoted Andrea Locatelli into sixth place, ahead of Xavi Vierge, who - along with everyone behind him - benefitted also from a late DNF for Iker Lecuona due to technical issues.

With Loris Baz another to crash and non-starts for Alex Lowes and Eugene Laverty, the depleted field by the end allowed for some notable results for some of the lesser fancied riders and teams.

Philipp Oettl scored his best finish of the year on the Go Eleven Ducati in eighth, ahead of Lucas Mahias in ninth, while Luca Bernardi landed his first-ever top ten finish in WorldSBK just behind them.

Roberto Tamburini crossed the line 11th, ahead of Hafizh Syahrin, the ex-MotoGP rider scoring the first points of his rookie WorldSBK campaign in 12th place. Kohta Nozane was 13th, ahead of Peter Hickman - scoring points at the end of his factory BMW outing in 14th - and Leandro Mercado in 15th for a double MIE Honda points’ finish.

2022 WorldSBK Championship | Most, Czechia | Race 2 RESULTS