Toprak gains valuable championship points as Nicolo Bulega retires from the race with a technical issue.

Britain’s Sam Lowes was on pole position for the WorldSBK Superpole race, unfortunately race one didn’t go to plan for the Elf Marc VDS rider, Alvaro Bautista crashed out taking Sam down with him. The weather at the Assen circuit was cold, wet and windy, very tricky conditions!

Sam got the holeshot into turn one, but ran wide, a few riders were all over the show! A crazy few corners as Nicolo Bulega lead the way followed by Toprak Razgatlioglu.

Andrea Iannone ran wide at the chicane, not a good weekend for the Italian rider. Alvaro was in third place pushing on to catch the leading duo of Bulega and Toprak.

British riders Tarran Mackenzie and Ryan Vickers were just outside the top ten. Toprak took charge and passed Bulega to lead the Superpole race. Sam and Alex Lowes were dicing for fifth place, Sam had the edge over Alex and passed Andrea Locatelli for fourth place.

Sam went on to make a move on Bautista for third place, lower down the field Mackenzie was now in ninth place followed by Scott Redding.

With five laps to go Toprak was leading from Bulega, Sam was in third place and was catching Nicolo. Bulega made a mistake at turn one on lap seven enabling Lowes to pass for second place. Bulega started to tour around the circuit, the Ducati man had an issue, he was furious!

Michael Van Der Mark was battling Locatelli for fourth place, much to the Assen’s crowds delight but Locatelli retook fourth. Toprak had over a three second lead at the front as the Turkish rider started the final lap, Sam was in second place with Alvaro in third place.

Toprak crosssed the finish line to take his first victory in a wet race, Sam finished in second place; his first WSBK podium, Bautista got the final podium spot in third place, Locatelli held onto fourth place with home rider Van Der Mark finishing in fifth place.

Featured Image: BMW Motorrad WorldSBK.