Toprak Razgatlioglu holds off his rivals once again to take the victory.

In today’s opening race of the weekend at Portimao, Toprak Razgatioglu charged to a hard earned 11th consecutive win of the season – by doing so, equaling the record jointly held by current rivals and former champions; Alvaro Bautista and Jonathan Rea.

Despite qualifying on pole position the 27-year-old BMW rider didn’t have everything his own way, dropping behind both the fast starting Alex Lowes and Danilo Petrucci on the opening lap. Both Petrucci and Razgatioglu made short work of Lowes, before the Turkish star made the critical race winning pass on Petrucci with eight laps remaining.

Reigning double world champion Alvaro Baustita, starting from sixth on the grid, battled to take second place in-front of Petrucci despite dropping down to 13th on the opening lap after running off track in the first sector. The Spaniard will be delighted with his pace heading into tomorrow after finishing only 0.780 behind the winner in defiance of his early race troubles.

Behind the podium finishers Garret Gerloff took his best result of the season in fourth while early race leader Lowes dropped to fifth. Razgatioglu’s team-mate Michael Van Der Mark’s wait for a first podium of the season goes on as he could only manage sixth, but remained in touch with the leaders finishing five seconds behind at the flag and ahead of Bautista’s teammate Nicola Bulaga in seventh.

Kawasaki’s Axel Bassani finished eight, ahead of GRT Yamaha duo Dominique Aegerter and Remy Gardner who finished ahead of both factory Yamaha’s and completed the top 10. Jonathan Rea, who has the record amount of World Superbike wins at Portimao (13) struggled home to finish in 15th after suffering a technical problem and dropping back after running as high as fifth. Rea’s teammate Locatelli finished four places higher in 11th.

HRC duo Iker Lecuona and Xavi Vierge spilt the Yamaha’s in 12th and 13th with Tito Rabat equalling his best finish of the season in 14th. Outside of the points former Moto2 podium finisher, Hafizh Syahrin wildcarding for JDT racing aboard a Ducati finished 18th. Portugal’s Ivo Lopez who is replacing the injured Tarran Mackenzie at MIE Honda was 19th in front of his home crowd.

Featured Image: WorldSBK.com