Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX) consolidated his title chances in the first round of San Juan thanks to a flawless and very strong performance, with which he was able to extend his world championship lead.

1st race of the penultimate WorldSBK round in Argentina

While Jonathan Rea made a perfect start from the second row, the battle for a podium for Scott Redding only lasted until the first corner. The Ducati rider lay down and when he got back on his bike, the field was up and away. A little later, Alvaro Bautista also retired with a crash and shortly afterwards Isaac Viñales drove into the gravel trap in the target corner. While Razgatlioglu was ahead of his pursuers, Rea was almost two seconds behind the Turks after four laps. Behind it, Bassani had passed Lowes, followed by Locatelli, Rinaldi, van der Mark, Laverty, Haslam and Gerloff. Davies was behind Cavalieri and Rabat only on P13 in front of Nozane, Mercado, Ponsson and only on P17 Redding who had fallen before that.

Chaz Davies (GoEleven Ducati) rode his sixth last race of his career at the Circuito de San Juan on Saturday before the Welshman hangs up his helmet.

Toprak alone on the run
The world championship leader continuously increased his lead over the reigning world champion. Behind them, Rinaldi was new fifth and Locatelli could already feel the breath of “Magic Michael” van der Mark behind him. Gerloff and Haslam had overtaken Sykes replacement Laverty, which meant that the Northern Irishman was only on P10. For Jonathan Rea, it was only a matter of getting his second place across the finish line, while Razgatlioglu was already a good 4 seconds ahead of the Kawasaki driver by the halfway point of the race. With 10 laps left, Michael Ruben Rinaldi had grabbed his compatriot and was on course for the podium, while his Aruba.it Ducati team-mate, in P14, tried to prevent a complete disaster. Similar to the first run of the WSSP 600, the race had become low in tension.

Alex Lowes (Kawasaki ZX-10RR) in an unusual paintwork – his teammate also had a slightly different colour for his bike and leather suit this time than usual.

Unleashed Scott Redding provides variety
Only Redding’s race to catch up was entertaining. After Rabat and Davies, the Englishman grabbed Cavalieri and Laverty a little later. With that, the third place in the World Cup was in the top ten. With his win over Rea, Toprak took another step towards the title and Lowes fought his way to a clean fourth place behind Rinaldi against Bassani, who saved Ducati’s honour as third. The lead of Razgatlioglu grew by 5 to 29 points and in the remaining 5 races it does not currently look like the reigning world champion will be able to win his seventh title in a row. Local hero Leandro Mercado narrowly missed the last World Cup point with P16, but of course this result was still a huge disappointment for the Argentine.

Jonathan Rea after the first run in conversation with his crew chief Pere Riba – the castration of the new Kawasaki ZX-10RR by the FIM caused the Greens to fall behind, and it will be interesting to see whether Kawasaki will be able to take revenge with the record world champion next year after the title chances for 2021 will soon only be theoretical.

Result of the first race in San Juan

The interviews after the first run in San Juan
Michael Ruben Rinaldi first began his answer in Spanish in the interview, which of course was received with enthusiasm in Argentina. But more than that it was very hot, the Italian didn’t say in the local language of the hosts before switching back to English. He was of course very happy with another podium, and then he was gone again to celebrate with his team. Jonathan Rea was very happy with his start and after his mistake on Friday he wanted to keep up with his pace and after Toprak’s strong race he hopes for an improvement on Sunday. The Turk really wanted to win after never getting past third place. Now he is very satisfied with his win and as usual he only said “we will see” on Sunday.

The podium after the first race in Argentina with from left Johnny Rea (Kawasaki, P2), winner and world championship leader Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) and third-placed Ducati rider Michael Ruben Rinaldi.

Stand in the WorldSBK world championships

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 503 YAMAHA
2. JONATHAN REA 474 KAWASAKI
3. SCOTT REDDING 431 DUCATI
4. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 265 DUCATI
5. ANDREA LOCATELLI 257 YAMAHA
6. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 221 BMW
7. ALEX LOWES 212 KAWASAKI
8. GARRETT GERLOFF 202 YAMAHA
9. AXEL BASSANI 180 DUCATI
10. ALVARO BAUTISTA 174 HONDA
11. TOM SYKES 167 BMW
12. LEON HASLAM 129 HONDA
13. CHAZ DAVIES 124 DUCATI
14. LORIS BAZ 53 DUCATI
15. KOHTA NOZANE 52 YAMAHA
16. TITO RABAT 46 KAWASAKI
17. LUCAS MAHIAS 44 KAWASAKI
18. EUGENE LAVERTY 40 BMW
19. ISAAC VINALES 32 KAWASAKI
20. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 31 YAMAHA
21. LEANDRO MERCADO 25 HONDA
22. JONAS FOLGER 21 BMW
23. SAMUELE CAVALIERI 12 DUCATI
24. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
25. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
26. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
27. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI

Scott Redding (Ducati) in turn 1 after his crash right after the start – in the end, the Englishman made it into the top ten with a remarkable chase.

WorldSBK San Juan schedule

The Circuito de San Juan

>WSBK San Juan Preview see separate report on this page.

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