Start on the shortest home straight of the WorldSBK calendar, with world champion Jonathan Rea (No. 1) and Alex Lowes with 22 (both Kawasaki) in the middle of the picture. Far right, Toprak Razgatlioglu on the Yamaha as the winner of the first race on Saturday afternoon.

Toprak wins the sprint race – but Rea took the victory

In the warm-up, Razgatlioglu was the fastest and the Turk took the lead on the first lap, just like on Saturday afternoon before Turn 5. But after a mistake, Rea passed him again. A little later, however, it was Toprak again in the same place, who pushed past the Kawasaki ace in front of Adelaide. While Andrea Locatelli was overtaken by Alex Lowes behind, a duel for victory broke out at the front. Leon Haslam on the HRC Honda was initially on P5. The Englishman was then overtaken by Redding, van der Mark, Bautista and Davies and ended up ninth. In the front, however, Rea tried another attack on the last lap, and he also passed the Yamaha rider. But in Lycée, a sharp right turn before the finish, the Northern Irishman had problems braking and Razgatlioglu pushed past him inside and won the second race in a row in Nevers ahead of the Kawasaki duo Rea and Lowes. However, the Turk subsequently received a track limit penalty and was thus relegated to second place. Something that should have happened in the second race at Misano, but was the first time in round 3 overlooked by the FIM stewards at the time.

Recorded seconds before the start of the sprint race from the main grandstand, which was almost empty on Sunday morning – compared to 2019, only a fraction of the spectators came to the beautifully situated track on the western edge of Burgundy.

The winners and losers

In addition to the three pilots on the symbolic podium, Andrea Locatelli in particular was among the winners as fourth. With 5th place Scott Redding managed a significant increase compared to the previous day and above all he can now start in the second row for the last race. In this respect, along with van der Mark, Bautista and Davies, he is one of the riders who can be happy with the outcome of the race. In the third place in the World Cup, however, his deficit on the leading duo has grown threateningly, which is why he can also be counted among the losers to a certain extent. Leon Haslam and Michael Ruben Rinaldi were in the top six at the start of the race and lost a lot of ground towards the middle of the race. In ninth place, the Englishman saved one last point, which the Italian with 10th place was not allowed to do. More worrying than the performance of the two was the relapse of Tom Sykes to 12th place, after the man from Huddersfield started the race as third. Together with Gerloff, the BMW driver is one of those riders who cannot be at all satisfied with the outcome of the sprint race. Of course, this applies to everyone except Bassani with P11 and the still ailing Mahias as fourteenth.

Leon Haslam (HRC Honda) shortly before the start of the Superpole Race – the future of the currently longest-serving WorldSBK pilot is still in the stars. In addition to Tom Sykes, Chaz Davies should also be interested in switching to the Honda factory team.

The interviews after the race
After his fall the day before, Alex Lowes was overjoyed that he was now able to celebrate his podium on Sunday morning. After finishing second last year, he was absolutely fine with his third place, and he was trying to improve a little in the afternoon. Jonathan Rea stated that he now had a little more confidence in his front. Compared to Saturday, he would have had a better feeling, and he had a lot of fun on his Kawasaki. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough for victory in the end, but he will try again in the afternoon. This time, Stopprak, as some call him, could no longer cross the finish line with a stoppie, as he emphasized in the interview. But it was a good and demanding race and of course he was happy with the second win here and will try it a third time.

Sunday morning’s Superpole race in numbers – corrected

After his punishment for a track limit offence, the Turk was relegated one place back, which also meant that he lost the World Championship lead he had otherwise won. But he got it back with his victory in the second race on Sunday. Only afterwards the lead over Rea was significantly smaller with 4 points in the end. Without the penalty in the Superpole Race, it would have been 13. Below the corrected result, after publication in the evening after the race.

Stand in the WorldSBK world championships

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 345 YAMAHA
2. JONATHAN REA 343 KAWASAKI
3. SCOTT REDDING 282 DUCATI
4. ALEX LOWES 176 KAWASAKI
5. ANDREA LOCATELLI 173 YAMAHA
6. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 163 DUCATI
7. TOM SYKES 153 BMW
8. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 146 BMW
9. GARRETT GERLOFF 140 YAMAHA
10. ALVARO BAUTISTA 105 HONDA
11. CHAZ DAVIES 103 DUCATI
12. AXEL BASSANI 95 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 78 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

WorldSBK Nevers schedule

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