WorldSBK Jerez Race 2 Results | Razgatlioglu doubles up as Rea flounders

Toprak Razgatlioglu has taken a definitive step towards the 2021 WorldSBK Championship title as he completed a double victory at Jerez, while Jonathan Rea could only manage a distant fifth place result.

Though not the first time he has won twice over a single race weekend, this is the first clean sweep for the Turkish rider following the cancellation of the Superpole Race.

Even so, he was made to work hard for it by a frisky Scott Redding, who keenly chased down a gap to his rival to shadow him for the second-half of the race before briefly overtaking with four laps to go.

Indeed, Razgatlioglu looked to be heading for a relatively easy afternoon after responding to a pass from title rival Rea on the opening lap to push back through at Turn 6, before quickly building up his lead.

However, higher temperatures seemed to be playing into the hands of the Ducati contingent with Michael Ruben Rinaldi and Redding beginning to close the gap, before the tempo increased further with the latter getting through into second on his team-mate.

Steadily working into contention, Redding saw an opportunity with a momentary mistake from Razgatlioglu on Lap 17 of 20. However, Razgatlioglu’s pace was transformed with the benefit of a reference point ahead of him, the Turk using his late braking skills to snatch back the position on the next lap at the final corner.

Despite Redding’s best efforts, Razgatlioglu carried on through to the chequered flag to collect his tenth win of the season in a race in which his main rival Rea couldn’t compete against the Yamaha man.

Indeed, with Rinaldi following Razgatlioglu through on lap one, the overtake would mark the start of another trying race for Rea - who struggled with tyre woes in Barcelona last weekend - as the rise in temperature saw him struggle for grip and on the brakes aboard his Kawasaki ZX-10RR.

As such, instead of reacting to Rinaldi’s pass, Rea found himself playing a rear-guard action for much of the race as rivals stacked up behind him. With Redding passing on Lap 3, Andrea Locatelli and then Alvaro Bautista followed suit on Lap 7 and 8 to demote Rea to sixth.

Overcoming an intense battle with rookie Axel Bassani, Rea was able to regain one position at the expense of the fading Rinaldi, but fifth at the flag means Razgatlioglu leaves Jerez having opened up his overall lead to 20 points.

Up ahead of Rea, Bautista delivered Honda its second podium in as many weekends on what has been the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade’s most convincing showing since entering WorldSBK. Despite losing time with a mistake with six laps to go, he’d catch and pass Andrea Locatelli on the penultimate revolution.

Bassani was impressive again for sixth on the privateer Motocorsa Ducati, the Italian getting the better of factory rider Rinaldi who slipped all the way back to seventh.

Michael van der Mark was the best placed BMW rider in eighth, ahead of Loris Baz, while Garrett Gerloff rounded out the top ten.

Elsewhere, Alex Lowes didn’t take up his front row grid slot after withdrawing due to his hand injury, while Isaac Vinales didn’t compete today in the wake of his cousin Dean Berta Vinales’ death a day earlier.

2021 WorldSBK Jerez | Race 2 RESULTS