Razgatlioglu: “I tried to keep fighting but it wasn’t enough”

The pair had one of their closest battles of the season in the early stages of Race 1 before the reigning WorldSBK champion pulled clear.

Something that’s becoming a regular occurrence for Razgatlioglu, the Yamaha rider had the pace to match Bautista when plenty of grip was available.

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But as the tyres started to drop Bautista got faster and faster and was able to set lap times that pushed Razgatlioglu into setting his fastest laps of the race, albeit they were still a few tenths slower.

Disappointed to miss out on a feature length race win once again, Razgatlioglu told WorldSBK.com: "I’m waiting for 100 wins! We have time for this. Today, wasn’t a bad race. 

"I’m not 100% happy because I finished the race in second position. My goal is to win a race. 

"In Race 1, I was feeling good but when the tyres started to drop, I saw the Ducati still had very good acceleration. I tried to keep fighting with him, but it wasn’t enough. It’s better than nothing."

Like Razgatlioglu, Jonathan Rea also showed very strong pace during the first half of the race before coming across the line in a quiet third place. 

The Kawasaki rider was able to keep pace with the two leaders whilst they were battling, but when Bautista finally got the lead on lap eight, the gaps started to grow between the top three.

Rea said: "It was very tough! One of those races where I didn’t expect to be on the podium, even if it’s always the target. 

"After a very tough Friday and Superpole, starting from 7 was difficult. I cut through the traffic very well in the first laps and got good track position, but then I didn’t have anything for Toprak or Alvaro. 

"They were just a little bit faster than me but I was the best of the rest. We need to improve in some areas for tomorrow; the bike feels quite good in the heavy braking zones but finishing the corner, we’re not good enough. 

"We have some good data to move tomorrow and for the Superpole Race, I feel like we can be competitive enough; we need to get a good start and see where we are."