Tom Sykes in the BMW box – the Englishman learned shortly before the Navarra weekend that there would be no more space for him in the blue-and-white factory team for 2022 because Scott Redding had been signed. He gave his answer to that in the three races.

Toprak strikes back and wins ahead of Redding and Rea

After two losses to Redding and Rea, it was clear that Razgatlioglu would fight with a knife between his teeth for the third and final race in Navarre. However, like all of his rivals, Toprak had to be patient before the second race on Sunday because the start of the race was delayed due to a problem with his Yamaha brand colleague Nozane with his bike. When it finally started with a delay, it was Lotatelli first who caused a bit of chaos when he passed Redding and then almost missed a corner. On the first lap, the race was over for Gerloff and Davies with a crash. After a bad start, Rea had taken third place behind Redding and the leading Turk, and passed the Englishman a little later.

Due to the inflated prices, the main grandstand was as good as empty, and almost all visitors were satisfied with an umbrella and the much cheaper tickets to watch the exciting races.

The hunt for the leader
Because the Ducati rider had lost a bit of ground on the Toprak, who was in the lead, the world championship leader immediately went on the hunt for the Yamaha rider. In the third round, the Kawasaki ace had arrived in its slipstream. Leandro Mercado was the next fall victim at this point. Scott Redding was not yet defeated, and a three-way battle began in the battle for victory in the final race of the Navarre Premiere. Locatelli was on P4 ahead of Sykes, van der Mark, Lowes, Rinaldi, Bassani and Bautista. Lucas Mahias received a long lap penalty due to a prohibited manoeuvre on the grid. Shortly afterwards, Lowes fought his way past the Dutchman in front of him and thus secured position 6 behind his BMW team-mates.

The explanation why Toprak is also often called Stopprak is provided by this picture of him after the second race on Sunday after he was able to compete in the front for the first time in Navarra.

The second half
Toprak had not yet managed to outrun his pursuers. But in the middle of the race, it didn’t look like they might endanger him. With nine laps to go, Toprak was one second ahead of the chasing duo. At this point, it looked as if Redding in particular could go a step further, while Rea apparently had more trouble keeping the gap to the front-runner constant. When he was able to drive away from the Ducati driver a little later, the Northern Irishman had only with difficulty prevented a crash in the target curve a little later. With that, Scott came closer to him again and even passed him briefly on the fourth last lap, but the Kawasaki ace was able to counter. Shortly afterwards, Redding was back in front and tried to intercept the leader from Turkey in the last three rounds. Rea had had a second near-fall before and before him, it was now about the victory between Razgatlioglu and Redding. It wasn’t enough and while Nozane crashed on the last lap, Toprak took the first win in Navarra.

Jonathan Rea before the last race in the Kawasaki Racing Box – it shouldn’t go exactly as he wanted, but he is all the more looking forward to Magny-Cours, where he has celebrated many triumphs in previous years.

The riders behind the podium

Garrett Gerloff would hardly have been on the podium, but the Texan probably could have shown a good race. For him, however, it was a mistake by Chaz Davies that led to his crash, with which he has to hope for the track in Nevers, where he was able to impress last year. On the other hand, the weekend turned out much better for Locatelli and Lowes, who together with BMW driver Tom Sykes formed the best trio behind the top three in Navarra. The Italian finished fourth in all three races and the Kawasaki works rider shone with two fifth and one sixth place, twice in front of and once behind his compatriot from Huddersfield. He had beaten team-mate van der Mark in all races, what a satisfaction after it became public on Thursday that he had to make room for Redding in the BMW works team!

Turn nine in the first lap with a far-reaching Locatelli in the centre of the picture and behind him the falling Chaz Davies, who also hit Garrett Gerloff at the rear in his crash and made him fall.

The remaining placements
For Leon Haslam, like Kohta Nozane, the race ended prematurely with a fall. His team-mate Alvaro Bautista had a second top ten result after the morning, with at least 9th place behind the recently fathered Michael van der Mark. After he hadn’t scored any points in the previous two races because P10 in the sprint race didn’t give any points, and he had missed out on Saturday due to the crash, a conciliatory conclusion for the Spaniard. Similar for Michael Ruben Rinaldi, who after poor performance in the first two races was able to save his honour as a Ducati factory rider in seventh place. All riders, from Axel Bassani in 10th place to Leandro Mercado in fifteenth, scored points and were definitely satisfied with them. This is especially true for Jonas Folger, who was only able to slightly improve his account for the third time this season, albeit outside the top ten. Even Lucas Mahias was satisfied when, despite problems before the restart and a long-lap penalty, he made it to 14th place before continuing at home.

The Honda of Leon Haslam, who had to put up with a terrible weekend at the Circuito de Navarra and had to return home on Saturday with only 3 points from the first run.

The second WorldSBK race on Sunday from Navarre in numbers

Interviews after the race
Jonathan Rea was of course not happy with 3rd place, but he also made it clear that he didn’t have the means to fight for victory. In the last part of the race, he would not have had a chance to keep up with the two colleagues and fight. But he is already looking forward to Magny-Cours, where he is definitely hoping for a better result. The first thing Toprak thanked his team was that he was happy that he had now won again. It is also important to have always stood on the podium in Navarra, which is very important for the championship. Scott Redding spoke of a good weekend. He wants to try to fight for the world championship. With the front tire hot, he would have tried to control the race. When Rea got into trouble towards the end of the race, he could have attacked and ultimately decided to finish second rather than risk a fall while fighting for victory.

The podium with, from left, Scott Redding (Ducati, P2), winner Toprak Razgatlioglu (Yamaha) and third-placed Kawasaki rider Jonathan Re.

The completely open situation in the world championship after 21 races

Equal points at Rea and Toprak, with the Northern Irishman holding 8 wins and the Turk only at six, followed by Redding as a five-time winner. The Englishman was able to reduce his gap to the leaders in Navarra to 38 points, which means he is definitely back in the race for the title fight. Should it rain in Nevers, he could possibly overtake Toprak in France in two weeks. In this case, of course, Rea would also be favoured, but so far Razgatlioglu had been more than lucky with the weather despite the sometimes poor forecasts. When it is wet, the man from Alanya is basically considered to have no chance, as could be seen in Magny-Cours in the previous year when it was raining.

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 311 YAMAHA
JONATHAN REA 311 KAWASAKI
3. SCOTT REDDING 273 DUCATI
4. ALEX LOWES 169 KAWASAKI
5. ANDREA LOCATELLI 151 YAMAHA
6. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 150 DUCATI
7. TOM SYKES 146 BMW
8. GARRETT GERLOFF 135 YAMAHA
9. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 131 BMW
10. CHAZ DAVIES 92 DUCATI
11. ALVARO BAUTISTA 92 HONDA
12. AXEL BASSANI 87 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 71 HONDA
14. LUCAS MAHIAS 38 KAWASAKI
15. TITO RABAT 35 DUCATI
16. KOHTA NOZANE 30 YAMAHA
17. ISAAC VINALES 19 KAWASAKI
18. JONAS FOLGER 14 BMW
19. EUGENE LAVERTY 14 BMW
20. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 11 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

Circuito de Navarra

The route map of Navarre, where the first WorldSBK race in history will start on August 22nd, 2021. With 9 right and 6 left turns, the Circuito de Navarra, like most of the other routes, is clockwise on the calendar. The racetrack was completed in June 2010 and is 3.933 km long and the start-finish straight is 800 m.

How to proceed in the provisional calendar

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