This should mean the end of Jonathan Rea’s title defense (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) – with his crash in Turn 15 he lost the chance to fight his way back to the World Championship leader.

Jonathan Rea with serious crash – Toprak wins in “Marquez-Style”

The reigning world champion has already stood on the podium 20 times at the Autodromo do Algarve. In addition, the Northern Irishman had already been victorious here twelve times. After the start, Toprak was first in front, but Rea then passed inside to have to let the Turks by again at turn 5 inside. Razgatlioglu had rudely pushed the Kawasaki driver to the outside, but he stayed close on his heels afterwards. The game was repeated in the second round, but this time Toprak bumped the record world champion roughly. Close behind Scott Redding followed by Haslam, Rinaldi, Locatelli, Gerlof, Baz, Bautista and Laverty, who had pushed his BMW team-mate van der Mark out of the top ten. A little later, the game was repeated at the top, but then on the long straight, Redding passed the two brawlers and Rea only turned third into the first corner.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX) shortly before the start of the first run – the Turk definitely made no new friends among his opponents due to his reckless driving style in “Marquez style”. As with the Catalans, the FIM apparently just looks the other way when there are no injuries or deaths.

A tough three-way battle with the premature end for Johnny Rea
Time and again, the Kawasaki ace showed that he was a bit faster in the corners than his two opponents. But then another drama happened for the 6-time series world champion in this disastrous season. While this should mean the preliminary decision in the title fight, Redding and Razgatlioglu fought lonely at the top in their fight for the victory, which was now reduced to a duel. With twelve laps to go, Leon Haslam lost three positions in one lap after the Englishman was pushed off the provisional podium by Rinaldi, Baz and then HRC Honda team-mate Alvaro Bautista. Behind them were Locatelli and van der Mark, whose BMW colleague Laverty had meanwhile been caught by Gerloff, Bassani and Mercado. The Northern Irishman was only on P12 ahead of Ponsson, Viñales, Nozane and Cavalieri. When there were still six laps to go, Locatelli and “Magic Michael” came into contact and crashed at the same time. The Dutchman was so beside himself that he jostled the Italian violently in passing to his bike, which could result in a penalty.

A record world champion destroyed on the ground hides his face in his hands – due to the extremely unfair speed limit for the new Kawasaki Ninja by the FIM, the reigning world champion had to push too often to the limit by Razgatlioglu and Redding and paid a high price for it.

Disaster for Rabat and Folger
The replacement for the injured Lucas Mahias did not really look good on the Puccetti Kawasaki. At the halfway point of the race, Tito Rabat was third from last, ahead of Loris Cresson and Jonas Folger. The German BMW private driver will probably be riding his final World Championship round in the WorldSBK in Portugal. His team had already announced that they would not participate in the overseas races in Argentina and Indonesia. The main reason for this are the desperate results with a rider who was on the podium for Yamaha in MotoGP four years ago. Then came the severe setback before the end of the season with a burnout, after which the arduous way back to the world championship began two years later. It is quite possible that we will see the man from Bavaria in another attempt in the WorldSSP 600 next season. However, the probability is at least very high that he will never again compete in the WSBK.

Jonas Folger (Bonovo Action BMW) In the end, he was second to last thanks to the many falls in front of him and got a World Championship point.

The fight for victory and the podium
Toprak and Scott didn’t give each other an inch at the head. The lead between the two kept changing and with two laps to go the Turk was ahead. Redding didn’t get past on the long straight after that, which meant a preliminary decision. Behind them, Bautista and Baz fought for third place. It was Razgatlioglu who took the top step of the podium with a hard-fought victory. Behind them, like Johnny Rea in front of him, the HRC Honda driver was eliminated in the last corner with a crash. Loris Baz secured another podium for GoEleven Ducati as a replacement for Chaz Davies, who was injured since his fall in Barcelona. Aruba.it Ducati rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi won fourth place, leaving Leon Haslam on the best Honda and Yamaha ace Garrett Gerloff just behind. The first ten were completed by Axel Bassani (Barni Ducati), Tati Mercado (MIE Honda), Eugene Laverty (BMW) and Christophe Ponsson on the Gil Motor Sport-Yamaha

The crash of Andrea Locatelli (Yamaha, front) and Michael van der Mark (BMW) when they were eliminated on the ground, after which the Dutchman clearly saw the Italians to be guilty.

The first race of Portimão in numbers

The interviews after the race
Loris Baz was of course overjoyed with his podium. He saw that Bautista was at the limit with his front tire and with that he tried to put the Spaniard under pressure. Of course, he was sorry for Alvaro’s fall, but on the other hand, he was of course happy to be on the podium for the team. Redding spoke of a good race. But not for the first time this season, he accused Razgatlioglu of deliberately driving unfairly. The Englishman agrees with second place so far, but maybe he’ll have to fight back with a similarly ruthless tactic. Toprak was very happy, and he emphasized that Rea was also very strong before his crash. After that, he would of course have tried to get the win, and now he is looking forward to Sunday.

The podium with a somewhat surprising occupation, after no man in green was represented and the mood was not good, after Redding (third from left) criticized the man on P1 and Baz on P3 about the fall of the man in front of him up to the last corner Bautista had benefited.

The Autodromo do Algarve

Stand in the world championships after race 1 in Portugal

Everything looks like the first run in Portimão has already brought the preliminary decision in the title fight. Instead of 20 points, the reigning world champion is now 45 points short of the world championship leader, and Redding can only fight for the runner-up with the Northern Irishman. Due to his forfeit for the race weekend, his KRT Kawasaki teammate also loses valuable points for himself and his team. This means that it is almost certain that the Greens will not be able to defend the drivers ‘or manufacturers’ titles from last year. Without his fall, Alvaro Bautista would be one position further ahead and would be on the back of van der Mark’s neck without any points. But the seventh intermediate rank is also such a disaster for the fifth place in the World Cup, in addition to his crash. However, the man from Gouda has the chance to fight for position 6 on Sunday instead of Alex Lowes, who is missing out.

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 474 YAMAHA
2. JONATHAN REA 429 KAWASAKI
3. SCOTT REDDING 395 DUCATI
4. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 240 DUCATI
5. ANDREA LOCATELLI 227 YAMAHA
6. ALEX LOWES 199 KAWASAKI
7. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 189 BMW
8. GARRETT GERLOFF 180 YAMAHA
9. ALVARO BAUTISTA 169 HONDA
10. TOM SYKES 167 BMW
11. AXEL BASSANI 159 DUCATI
12. CHAZ DAVIES 120 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 115 HONDA
14. KOHTA NOZANE 48 YAMAHA
15. LUCAS MAHIAS 44 KAWASAKI
16. TITO RABAT 41 KAWASAKI
17. LORIS BAZ 33 DUCATI
18. EUGENE LAVERTY 30 BMW
19. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 29 YAMAHA
20. ISAAC VINALES 28 KAWASAKI
21. JONAS FOLGER 20 BMW
22. LEANDRO MERCADO 20 HONDA
23. SAMUELE CAVALIERI 10 DUCATI
24. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
25. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
26. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
27. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in his concentration phase shortly before the start – in front of the almost empty grandstand of the Autodromo do Algarve – it was to be one of the worst races of his long career.

WorldSBK Portimao schedule

>WSBK Portimão Preview see separate report on this page.

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