After starting from second place behind Rea in the first race on Saturday, the strongest rider in the end – Scott Redding (Aruba.it Ducati), who will compete for BMW next year.

Rea extends his lead in second behind Redding – Toprak only third

The Superpole on Saturday morning was anything but what Toprak wanted. Together with Alex Lowes and Yamaha brand colleague Garrett Gerloff, the Turk was only eighth on the grid. In previous laps, however, as the example of Donington Park showed, this had not prevented Razgatlioglu from reaching the front shortly after the start. This time, however, the Yamaha hope was only on P6 when the field came out of the first corners. At first Redding was in the lead, but a little later the pole sitter took over the command. After the first lap, Rea led the Ducati rider, Locatelli, Toprak, Lowes and Sykes. After three laps, the race was over for Christophe Ponsson and Leandro Mercado after the Argentine hit the Frenchman in the rear of his Yamaha and both crashed.

Alvaro Bautista in the gravel trap – the HRC Honda man may have problems getting a good contract for next season because he has long since replaced Alex Lowes as the rupture pilot of WorldSBK.

One-on-one at the top – Toprak struggled
While Redding and Rea dueled at the top, Locatelli was already a good 2 seconds behind after five laps. Eight tenths behind Razgatlioglu, who apparently had trouble following his teammate. Behind them Lowes, Sykes, Davies, van der Mark, Bassani and Bautista, who was ousted from P10 by Nozane a little later. Lucas Mahias was already out of the race after his sensational sixth place on the grid. A little later, on Turn 9, Chaz Davies also crashed. Immediately afterwards, Bautista also fell. Toprak inherited third position from Locatelli when he misjudged a corner and a little later made a mistake in turn 2, which brought the Italian a little closer. After 9 of 23 laps, the two were just over 4 seconds behind the leaders.

Shortly before the start of the premiere of the WorldSBK on the Circuito de Navarra – an easy race for no rider due to the high temperatures and the resulting deterioration in tire grip.

The second half – the positions in the front positions were cemented
With eleven laps to go, the race was over for Jayson Uribe when the US boy crashed his Kawasaki. In the lead was Redding, and behind that Rea had only been able to avoid a fall with a lot of skill when he tried to get closer to the Englishman. After that, he was a good one and a half seconds behind Ducati Hope, while Toprak was three and a half seconds behind the world championship leader. Then Rea had another tricky situation on Turn 9 that cost him about a second. He was almost exactly in the middle between leader Redding and Razgatlioglu in third place, 5.5 seconds behind the leader. Scott Redding looked sovereign as the leader, and Rea didn’t risk the last thing to catch him after two tricky situations. It was much more important for the Northern Irish to finish before his next rival in the World Cup. He managed to do this behind winner Redding with second place and in third place Toprak was definitely the loser of the first race.

Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with BRIXX) lost important points to Redding and Rea in the title fight and was of course the most unlucky of the three men on the podium despite being third. Anyone who, like the Turk, talks about wanting to win before the race must see third place as a defeat.

Saturday afternoon’s race in numbers

The podium interviews after the first of 3 races of the Navarre premiere
Toprak clearly stated that he was not satisfied, but that he still scored important points with third place. The tires had deteriorated a lot, but this was certainly the case with all riders, and therefore a difficult race for all drivers. Johnny Rea, on the other hand, was much happier. Of course, it was anything but easy, and he and his team will try to find an even better setup for Sunday. But he was absolutely happy with second place. Redding was happy with its good start. He had the feeling that they could still improve a little for the next day. But of course he is absolutely satisfied and after such a good start everything is a bit easier, and he managed the race well.

The World Championship leader on the left in the picture with the third place – Jonathan Rea’s outfit says everything about the temperatures, which are obviously completely normal for Toprak Razgatlioglu from Turkey at this time of the year.

The winners and losers

Of course, it was a positive result, especially for Redding and Rea because they finished ahead of Toprak. In addition to the Turks, who should have an even harder time in the sprint race on Sunday morning with starting position 8, the losers in particular were of course the ones who fell. In addition, Naomichi Uramoto, who almost got a point with his Suzuki as a wildcard rider, but was pushed to P16 by Ponsson shortly before the end. There were, of course, many winners, starting with Andrea Locatelli, who was safer fourth, and Alex Lowes, who was again left behind, leaving all the other drivers behind except for the Italian and the three on the podium. Axel Bassani convinced again in eighth place, while Garrett Gerloff crossed the chequered flag with P9, hardly happy. The US boy, along with Rinaldi in tenth, the Spaniard Rabat in P12 and HRC Honda works rider Leon Haslam in 13th place, was among the losers in the first race on Saturday. Kohta Nozane, on the other hand, definitely agreed with 11th place.

A good-humoured Tom Sykes in third place on the grid – although he only finished sixth in the race, as the best BMW rider he could still be satisfied with his result. Where the Huddersfield warrior will drive next season is still completely open, but HRC Honda could be a good possibility.

The BMW situation and a satisfied joker from England
After starting third in the race, Tom Sykes had also beaten his team-mate van der Mark by finishing sixth, which was certainly particularly important to the man from Huddersfield. The best way to prove that he deserves a place in a works team for 2022 and probably won’t be with BMW. Brand colleague Jonas Folger only won World Championship points for the second time this season, even if it is only two of them, with 14th place. Eugene Laverty is absent because his team is absent for the third time in a row, which is simply scandalous. The real background to this will probably never come to the public, there is definitely a lack of seriousness at RC Squadra Corse, this is the only sure thing about this drama for the Northern Irish.

Alex Lowes with his crew chief before the start – the fast Englishman drove another strong race and was even able to put Toprak under pressure at the beginning. He already has his contract with the Kawasaki Racing Team secure and this should even be for a number of years.

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.

Stand in the WorldSBK World Championships

P, Rider, Points, Bike
1. JONATHAN REA 286 KAWASAKI
2. TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 279 YAMAHA
3. SCOTT REDDING 241 DUCATI
4. ALEX LOWES 154 KAWASAKI
5. MICHAEL RUBEN RINALDI 141 DUCATI
6. GARRETT GERLOFF 134 YAMAHA
7. ANDREA LOCATELLI 132 YAMAHA
8. TOM SYKES 131 BMW
9. MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 122 BMW
10. CHAZ DAVIES 89 DUCATI
11. ALVARO BAUTISTA 84 HONDA
12. AXEL BASSANI 81 DUCATI
13. LEON HASLAM 71 HONDA
14. LUCAS MAHIAS 36 KAWASAKI
15. TITO RABAT 30 DUCATI
16. KOHTA NOZANE 30 YAMAHA
17. ISAAC VINALES 19 KAWASAKI
18. EUGENE LAVERTY 14 BMW
19. JONAS FOLGER 10 BMW
20. CHRISTOPHE PONSSON 8 YAMAHA
21. LEANDRO MERCADO 7 HONDA
22. MARVIN FRITZ 6 YAMAHA
23. LORIS CRESSON 3 KAWASAKI
24. ANDREA MANTOVANI 2 KAWASAKI
25. LUKE MOSSEY 2 KAWASAKI

Champagne showers for the Ducati man on the left by winner Scott Redding, while Toprak has already run away as a Muslim and a happy Jonathan Rea ducks his head. He extended his World Championship lead from 3 to 7 points.

WorldSBK Navarra schedule

>WSBK Navarra Preview see separate report on this page.

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