WSBK: Toprak Razgatioglu Wins Final Superpole Race of the Season
By Jack Hammersley
It was an all Yamaha podium in the Superpole race with Toprak winning from Garrett Gerloff and Michael van der Mark. This marks the first time since joining Kawasaki that Jonathan Rea has not been on the podium in three races.
It was a repeat from race one for Toprak, taking the holeshot and setting constant fastest laps of the race. Toprak has been on top form this weekend and has now taken his teammate Van Der Mark for fourth place in the championship. Can Toprak be the third rider to win all three races in a weekend?
Garrett Gerloff continues to impress as the American takes his career-best finish of second place. Garrett was pushing to try and stay with Toprak, but ultimately Toprak was just too strong for the rookie. Gerloff will start the final race of the season in second place, which is the highest place he’ll start from this season, can the American win the last race of the season?
Michael Van Der Mark had a great battle with Chaz Davies for third place for the whole race, constantly dicing and swapping positions with the Welshman. Davies was able to pull away on the straights with the power of the V4 Ducati, but Van Der Mark was able to claw it back in the corners taking the third place at the last corner on the penultimate lap from Chaz.
Since joining Kawasaki, Jonathan Rea had never gone more than two races off the podium, but that has changed now as the six-time World Champion managed to gain ten positions from his starting position of 15th. Still, he was unable to mount a challenge on Chaz and Michael, meaning that Rea had to settle for fifth and that’s where he’ll start the final race of the 2020 season.
Scott Redding managed a great comeback from 22nd on the grid to finish an incredible sixth. The Brit has shown great pace all weekend put due to his qualifying crash, he was unable to mount of challenge at the top spot. But he’ll be starting his final race of the season in sixth on the grid and will be looking to end 2020 on a high heading into 2021.
Michael Ruben Rinaldi managed to finish in ninth position and due to a crash for Loris Baz at turn nine on lap three. It means that Italian has won the Independence Championship, something Michael will want to take into his new teammate at Aruba.it Ducati. Can the Italian end his incredible season with a top-five finish?
The final race of the season takes place at 15:15 (GMT+1). Can Toprak be able to win his fourth race of the season or can someone take the challenge to the Turkish rider?
Featured Image: Yamaha-Racing