Toprak and Nicolo Bulega battle for the Race One victory in sunny Portugal.

Following a disastrous opening round of the season for reigning champion Toprak Razgatlioglu, the Turkish rider bounced back in style to claim his first victory of the season following a race-long battle with Nicolo Bulega in WorldSBK Race 1 at the Portuguese World Superbike round.

Razgatlioglu started from pole, but had dropped out of the top six by the time the field made their way through turn one, he fought his way back into the podium positions by the end of lap two, and then set about Bulega.

Razgatlioglu miraculously re-took the lead on lap seven, but was never able to break away and after swapping positions with Bulega nine times in the closing ten laps, The BMW rider claimed the spoils by 0.067s. Andrea Locatelli was the highest finisher aboard Japanese machinery as he scored his 18th career podium in third place.

Danilo Petrucci was the second Ducati home in fourth place, Xavi Vierge and Michael Van der Mark completed the top six. After starting 16th on the grid, Andrea Iannone produced a sublime recovery ride to finish seventh, rounding out the top 10 were; Dominique Aegerter, Axel Bassani, and Remy Gardner.

Iker Lecuona finished 11th on his return to WSBK action after missing round 1 through injury while sole Kawasaki representative Garrett Gerloff came home 12th. Bahattin Sofuoğlu scored his highest WSBK finish to date in 13th ahead of British start Tarran Mackenzie. 2014 Moto2 World Champion Tito Rabat scored his first point of the season in 15th, coming home in front of Ryan Vickers and super-sun Jason O’halloran.

Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding both disappointingly failed to complete the first lap after contact at turn 4, Sam Lowes who was running in fourth place crashed on lap 7, two laps later his twin brother suffered the same fate after recovering from last on the grid to run in ninth. Zaqhwan Zaidi and Yari Montella were the other riders not to finish.

Featured Image: WorldSBK