Toprak wins ahead of Rea and “Loca” – Redding stumbles and disappoints
On Friday afternoon in FP2 and on Saturday morning in FP3, Jonathan Rea didn’t really feel comfortable. The reigning world champion reported problems in some areas of the track, and on his toughest opponents he lost a few tenths. But in the Superpole, the Northern Irishman was fully back. While Scott Redding was only eighth after his best time in FP3, Rea was the fastest man in the very last minute for the eighth time in a row on the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours and took pole position. He replaced SBK world champion Ben Spies from 2009, whose record was so far with seven poles in a row. Behind the Kawasaki ace stood Toprak Razgatlioglu and Tom Sykes, of whom you can never be sure in the race whether his BMW will then go back significantly. After the start, Toprak had the nose in front, but Rea pushed past the Turk again before Turn 5, known as Adelaide. This was initially harassed by Lowes, Locatelli and Rinaldi, but was then able to work his way back to P2, while Redding did not make up any positions after the start.
The fight for victory in the first race of France
In turn 5 the Yamaha rider attacked the leader of the first four laps and the Yamaha rider was now in the front in front of Rea, Lowes, Rindladi, Locatelli, van der Mark, Haslam, Bassani, Bautista and on P10 Chaz Davies. Redding was only eleventh and Sykes even dropped to P12 as feared. The two had made mistakes before that, which had a correspondingly negative effect on their placement. The 6-time world champion has not yet given up, and Rea did everything to keep up with the Turkish. After 8 of 21 laps, the Kawasaki rider was back on the Yamaha ace. Lowes, meanwhile, was about a second behind the leading duo, while Leandro “Tati” Mercado drove into the gravel trap on the Honda. The two top people had put on a different front tire, but the difference seemed barely noticeable.
Redding with a difficult race and many problems – Lowes misses the podium with a crash
The Englishman did not have a good afternoon in the first run, and at the halfway point of the race he lost two positions in one fell swoop in Adelaide. A little later, his teammate Rinaldi was overtaken by Locatelli. Behind him van der Mark on the best BMW and the two HRC Honda drivers Bautista and Haslam in front of Bassani and Davies. In the meantime, Toprak had gained a lead, so 9 laps before the end the battle for victory seemed to be decided. With five laps to go, Alex Lowes crashed on Turn 8 in P3 while trying to keep Andrea Locatelli behind him at a distance. The Italian was on course for the podium, and van der Mark on the best BMW was in the top five. Redding also fell in turn 11 in the penultimate lap, making the disaster for the third place in the World Cup perfect, even if he was able to get up again immediately and was still twelfth after that. In the end, Razgatlioglu safely won ahead of Rea and Locatelli, Rinaldi, van der Mark and Bautista. His team-mate Haslam finished tenth after a mistake behind Bassani, Davies and Sykes, ahead of Garrett Gerloff.
The interviews after the race
The winner said after the first run that he had to work on his consistency before that. But Toprak would have managed this with his team and he was very satisfied with his bike, but in the end it would not have been enough for a stoppie on the finish line due to the relatively narrow lead. Now he will attack again on Sunday, and maybe it will work then. Andrea Locatelli was very satisfied after third place, and he emphasized that he was very satisfied with the progress. His Yamaha had been perfectly prepared by the team, and he would have had a good race with it. After finishing second, Jonathan Rea was of course not very satisfied, but the reigning world champion smiled nonetheless during the interview. He had a good feeling with his front, but it wasn’t quite enough with Razgatlioglu’s good performance. However, he hopes to find small improvements to his bike with his team in order to be able to fight at the very front on Sunday.
The first Magny-Cours superbike race in numbers
Stand in the WorldSBK world championships
P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 336 YAMAHA
2. JONATHAN REA 331 KAWASAKI
3. SCOTT REDDING 277 DUCATI
4. ALEX LOWES 169 KAWASAKI
5. ANDREA LOCATELLI 167 YAMAHA
6. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 163 DUCATI
7. TOM SYKES 153 BMW
8. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 142 BMW
9. GARRETT GERLOFF 140 YAMAHA
10. ALVARO BAUTISTA 102 HONDA
11. CHAZ DAVIES 101 DUCATI
12. AXEL BASSANI 95 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 77 HONDA
14. LUCAS MAHIAS 38 KAWASAKI
15. TITO RABAT 37 DUCATI
16. KOHTA NOZANE 30 YAMAHA
17. ISAAC VINALES 20 KAWASAKI
18. JONAS FOLGER 14 BMW
19. EUGENE LAVERTY 14 BMW
20. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 14 YAMAHA
21. LEANDRO MERCADO 8 HONDA
22. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
23. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
24. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
25. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI
WorldSSP 600 run 1: Aegerter wins after restart
After a crash between Niki Tuuli and the former WSBK star Michel Fabrizio, there were red flags and with a long delay there was a restart. Before the warm-up lap, local hero Valentin Debise was very lucky when his engine switched off, and he was hit by another driver afterwards, but he was not seriously injured. At the second start, World Championship leader Aegerter was the best and Steven Odendaal had a difficult task ahead of him with 13th place on the grid. But the South African worked his way up early and when there were still 7 of the race, which was shortened to 12 laps, he was already in P4 ahead of Gonzalez, Öttl, Öncü, Caricasulo and Tuuli in ninth place. The World Cup runner-up now had Aegerter, Cluzel and Bernardi ahead of him, with the leader from Switzerland already having a lead of 1.3 seconds over the second-placed French.
The last five laps
While Jules Cluzel was able to easily break away from his pursuers on P2, the race for Vertti Takala was already over after a crash. A little later, his Finnish compatriot Niki Tuuli was on the ground for the second time that day with his MV Agusta. Odendaal had grabbed Bernardi and Gonzalez had also passed the Italian. A little later, the Spaniard was right behind Cluzel, who had also conceded the French on the penultimate lap. While Aegerter was safely at the top, the fight for second place was still completely open until the checkered flag. In the end it was the World Cup runner-up who took second place behind the Swiss and Gonzalez had to be content with P4 behind the local hero.
Magny-Cours’ first supersport 600 race in numbers
Stand in the WorldSSP 600 world championships
With a lead of 52 points, Aegerter is lonely at the top, but appearances are deceptive. Because the fast Swiss has to drive MotoE in Misano, as he still has European championships chances there, he will miss the next lap in Barcelona. This means that Odendaal can ideally move closer to him at the Catalan event, except for a few points.
P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. DOMINIQUE AEGERTER 282 YAMAHA
2. STEVEN ODENDAAL 230 YAMAHA
3. PHILIPP OETTL 165 KAWASAKI
4. LUCA BERNARDI 161 YAMAHA
5. JULES CLUZEL 140 YAMAHA
6. MANUEL GONZALEZ 133 YAMAHA
7. FEDERICO CARICASULO 94 YAMAHA
8. RANDY KRUMMENACHER 82 YAMAHA
9. CAN ALEXANDER ONCU 74 KAWASAKI
10. RAFFAELE DE ROSA 70 KAWASAKI
11. NIKI TUULI 58 MV AGUSTA
12. HANNES SOOMER 48 YAMAHA
13. MARC ALCOBA 40 YAMAHA
14. CHRISTOFFER BERGMAN 39 YAMAHA
15. KEVIN MANFREDI 26 YAMAHA
16. VERTTI TAKALA 21 YAMAHA
17. GALANG HENDRA PRATAMA 21 YAMAHA
18. SIMON JESPERSEN 15 YAMAHA
19. PETER SEBESTYEN 15 YAMAHA
20. MARCEL BRENNER 10 YAMAHA
21. VALENTIN DEBISE 9 YAMAHA
22. SHERIDAN MORAIS 9 YAMAHA
23. DAVID SANCHIS MARTINEZ 8 YAMAHA
24. MARIA HERRERA 7 YAMAHA
25. ANDY VERDOIA 6 YAMAHA
26. FILIPPO FULIGNI 6 YAMAHA
27. STEPHANE FROSSARD 6 YAMAHA
28. MICHEL FABRIZIO 6 KAWASAKI
29. MAX ENDERLEIN 5 YAMAHA
30. ROBERTO MERCANDELLI 5 YAMAHA
31. HIKARI OKUBO 4 KAWASAKI
32. MASSIMO ROCCOLI 4 YAMAHA
33. FEDERICO FULIGNI 4 YAMAHA
34. LUCA GRUNWALD 3 SUZUKI
35. MATTEO PATACCA 3 YAMAHA
36. UNAI ORRADRE 2 YAMAHA
37. DANIEL VALLE 2 YAMAHA
38. ONDREJ VOSTATEK 2 YAMAHA
39. OSCAR GUTIERREZ IGLESIAS 1 YAMAHA
40. LUCA OTTAVIANI 1 KAWASAKI
41. LEONARDO TACCINI 1 KAWASAKI
42. DAVIDE PIZZOLI 1 YAMAHA
43. PAWEL SZKOPEK 1 YAMAHA
Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours
WorldSBK Nevers schedule
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