An outstanding weekend from Toprak Razgatlioglu, saw the Turkish superstar come within 0.003 seconds of securing a treble victory in Estoril.

Razgatlioglu dominated both feature races on Saturday and Sunday, but found himself in a race long duel with Nicolo Bulega in Sunday Morning’s sprint race (the closest finish in World Superbike history) eventually went the way of the Italian.

After Securing two Second placed finishes and winning the Sprint race in Portugal this weekend, Italian rookie Bulega kept his slim championship hopes alive and ensured the 2024 World Superbike Championship will be decided at the final round of the year at Jerez. With only the three remaining races next weekend remaining of the season, Bulega trails Championship leader Razgatioglu by 46 points (with 62 points still up for grabs) meaning if the Turkish rider finishes in the top five in Saturday afternoon’s first race in Spain he will clinch the championship with a day to spare.

Alvaro Bautista saw any hopes he had of defending his WSBK crown disappear after crashing out of what looked a certain podium finish in race one, the Spaniard recovered to take two third place finishes on Sunday and has guaranteed third place in the Championship.

Danilio Petrucci who took a hat-trick of wins at Cremona last month lies fourth in the Championship and sits six points ahead of Alex Lowes who claimed two wins at the opening round of the season at Philip Island.

Throughout the field, there is a lot riding on the final round of the season, only 12 points separate Michael Van der Mark, Andrea Iannone and Andrea Locatelli in 6th, 7th and 8th place in the standings.

Garrett Gerloff and Remy Gardner currently complete the top ten in the championship, but have Honda duo Xavi Vierge and Iker Lecuona hot on their tails. An injury ridden campaign has seen Jonathan Rea only claim one podium so far this season, however after taking a fourth place finish in Estoril will be heading to Jerez hungry to go one better and improve on his current 13th place in the Championship standings – The Northern Irishman currently holds an impressive record of winning at least one race every year since becoming a full-time WSBK in 2009, while winning three races on his way to finishing second in the World Supersport Championship in 2008 and five wins en-route to becoming runner-up of the 2007 British Superbike Championship.

Barring a victory at Jerez, this will be the first year since 2006 that Rea has failed to win a race in a season. After a podium-less and 14th placed finish in the championship in 2023, Scott Redding heads into the final round facing exactly the same fate in 2024 – with the Gloucestershire man’s 2025 plans still unclear he will be hoping to impress.

Axel Bassani is yet to gel with his Kawasaki and will be relieved the season is up and will have a new bike in 2025. Sam Lowes and Tarran Mackenzie will be hoping to end the season strongly as the pair remain with their current teams in 2025, while former British Superbike champion Brad Ray waives goodbye to the paddock and returns to BSB with the OMG racing team at the conclusion of the weekend. Kyle Ryde (OMG Yamaha) and Tommy Bridewell (Honda UK) who fought tooth and nail for the BSB title last weekend and were separated by just one point will both wild card for their BSB teams in WSBK this weekend.

Featured Image: WorldSBK.com