After three laps, the Superpole Race was broken off with red flags when Chaz Davies (GoEleven Ducati) and Lucas Mahias (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing) fell at the same time and the Englishman was then lying down.

Rea beats Razgatlioglu and extends the World Cup lead

After the start of the sprint race it was like on Saturday, Toprak, who took the lead in front of Redding and Rea. A little later, however, the Kawasaki rider was on his heels. On the other hand, the two BMW works drivers did not finish the first lap after van der Mark also cleared Tom Sykes in his crash. At the beginning, a duel between Razgatlioglu and Rea at the top developed, with the Ducati rider, who had initially fallen slightly behind, caught up again. In the third lap, Chaz Davies and Lucas Mahias were on the ground, causing red flags to come and have to be cancelled. The Frenchman then pitted himself again, but Davies’ Ducati had to be pushed away by the Marshals. The Welshman himself was transported away on a stretcher and taken to the medical centre for examination.

The start of the second part of the sprint race with only five laps left – this time Johnny Rea (1) found a much better start than on Saturday afternoon, when he only turned tenth into the first corner.

Part two of the Superpole Race after the restart
Again Toprak turned into the first corner ahead of Rea and Rinaldi. The Italian made a mistake immediately that cost him several places. At the front, the World Championship leader immediately attacked the leader, and the two didn’t give each other an inch in the corners. In the end, the Kawasaki rider was ahead and Razgatlioglu got far in Turn 8 and was then even overtaken by the following Alvaro Bautista. In addition, the Turk stumbled at turn nine and drove far into the green area, which should actually have resulted in a warning or punishment. In turn 10, the race was already over for Andrea Locatelli and Kohta Nozane when the Italian cleared away the Japanese in his crash, making BMW hope Michael van der Mark equal in the first part of the race. Toprak grabbed the HRC Honda rider a little later and set off in pursuit of the leader.

Kohta Nozane (left) and Andrea Locatelli (both Yamaha) after their double crash in Turn 10 – as before for the two BMW works riders Sykes and van der Mark, it was over for the two after one lap in the second part.

Toprak beaten again after retiring on Saturday
While Scott Redding had to evade the incident between Locatelli and Nozane and thus missed the connection to the top, Razgatlioglu tried desperately to catch up with the leader. But this time the Northern Irishman was not naked and defended the lead confidently. With the tenth win of the season, Rea was able to extend his lead over Toprak by a further 3 points. Bautista took his first podium of the season, while Sykes and van der Mark watched from the pits. Alex Lowes was a good fourth in front of the two Italians Rinaldi and Bassani, the sensation from Saturday with 2nd place. Haslam, Gerloff and Ponsson also made it into the points behind them. Scott Redding in fifteenth after his victory on Saturday lost a good starting position for the last run and important points in order not to lose the connection to the two leaders in the interim classification.

Alvaro Bautista after his first podium of the season for HRC Honda – the little Spaniard will return to Aruba.it Ducati instead of Redding for next season, for which he won the first 11 races of the year in 2019 and was runner-up in the world championship.

The WorldSBK Superpole race in numbers

The interviews with the first three of the sprint race
Rea emphasized that he had a very good bike and that despite only 7 laps, it was a long race for him in the second part. The aim was to manage the tires, and he succeeded in doing this extremely well. Now it is of course a matter of being fully there in the afternoon and showing a good run. Toprak said it was almost like qualifying. After he made a mistake on the first lap at the Curbs, the race was one lap too short for him to win. Alvaro Bautista has been standing in front of the microphone for the first time since Aragon 2020. The HRC Honda rider had some problems with his adrenaline after the crash. But he had a good feeling and of course was glad it had gone so well. Now he hopes to be able to build on that performance in the second race as well.

The symbolic podium after the sprint race with from left Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha, P2), winner Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki) and third-placed Alvaro Bautista on a Honda.

Der Circuito de Cataluña

Stand in the WorldSBK World Championship after the Superpole Race

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. JONATHAN REA 388 KAWASAKI
2. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 379 YAMAHA
3. SCOTT REDDING 323 DUCATI
4. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 193 DUCATI
5. ALEX LOWES 192 KAWASAKI
6. ANDREA LOCATELLI 190 YAMAHA
7. TOM SYKES 167 BMW
8. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 165 BMW
9. GARRETT GERLOFF 149 YAMAHA
10. ALVARO BAUTISTA 129 HONDA
11. AXEL BASSANI 124 DUCATI
12. CHAZ DAVIES 120 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 90 HONDA
14. LUCAS MAHIAS 44 KAWASAKI
15. TITO RABAT 38 DUCATI
16. KOHTA NOZANE 37 YAMAHA
17. ISAAC VINALES 22 KAWASAKI
18. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 19 YAMAHA
19. JONAS FOLGER 14 BMW
20. EUGENE LAVERTY 14 BMW
21. LEANDRO MERCADO 9 HONDA
22. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
23. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
24. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
25. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© WorldSBK).