Toprak and Bulega battled throughout the race and delivered an exciting first race of round ten

Motorland Aragon was the host for round ten of the WorldSBK championship, Ducati’s Nicolo Bulega was on pole position, BMW’s Toprak Razgatlioglu qualified in second place, with Bimota’s Alex Lowes rounding out the front row of the grid. There was 39 points between Toprak and Nicolo heading into race one.

Lights out at the Aragon circuit, Toprak lead the field into turn one. Things got heated in the first two corners, Bulega got pushed back to third place. There was contact between Bulega and Alex Lowes! Just as Sam Lowes was joining the party.

Bulega took control of the race at the last corner, Sam Lowes was in third place. Toprak retook the leading position as Bulega made a slight mistake running slightly wide.

The duel continued between the championship leaders, with Sam Lowes hanging on to them. Danilo Petrucci was in fourth place catching the leading trio with 16 laps to go. Alvaro Bautista was in fifth place, just in front of Alex Lowes.

Tarran Mackenzie had a technical issue at turn three, whilst running in 13th place, bringing out the yellow flags.

Toprak and Bulega were constantly swapping positions, all the time Sam Lowes was just waiting for his chance to lead the race. Petrucci was 0.7s behind the leaders, bringing Bautista and Alex Lowes with him.

With ten laps remaining in the race, there was a seven-way freight train all fighting for the victory! Andrea Locatelli had joined the leading group in seventh place. Toprak was leading from Bulega, the Turkish rider looked stronger in the latter stages of the race.

Bautista crashed out at turn 15 with six laps to go, disappointment for the home rider.

Bulega was piling on the pressure in the final few laps, the Italian rider was the fastest man on track. Axel Bassani was having a fantastic ride, the Bimota rider started the race from the back of the grid due to a penalty, he was running in eighth place.

Toprak just held off Bulega to take his first ever victory at the Argon circuit, Nicolo did everything he could but had to settle for second place, a well deserved podium for Sam Lowes in third place, Petrucci was fourth with Alex Lowes finishing in fifth place.

BMW are now leading the manufacture championship as well as Toprak leading the standings by 44 points, it’s all to play for in tomorrow’s two races!

Featured Images: KSC Photography Services.