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Toprak Razgatlıoğlu continued his fantastic form at the sixth round of the FIM Motul World Superbike Championship at Autodrom Most, Czech Republic. Stunning victories in Sunday’s Superpole Race and Race 2, backed up by a second-place finish in Race 1 means that the Turkish star goes into the summer break full of confidence at the halfway stage of the season.

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It initially looked as if the Pata Yamaha with Brixx rider was in for a tough weekend when Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team) smashed the lap record in Superpole to qualify first, before Alvaro Bautista (Arubi.it Ducati) went on to take victory in Race 1.

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A brief, if light drizzle in the middle of the race allowed Scott Redding (BMW Motorrad) to join the top three of Razgatlıoğlu, Rea and Bautista and make it a top four. Toprak had to dig deep and muster all his skill and mettle to pull a daring last lap pass on the BMW rider to cross the line in second position.

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Come Sunday and the clouds gave way to blue skies and hot sunshine for the 10-lap Superpole race. The reigning champion made a perfect getaway from second on the grid and headed the field into the tricky right-left chicane. He led the majority of the race, but Rea rallied in the final stages to take the lead going into the final lap.

 

The lead was short-lived however as Toprak ducked back underneath him through the sweeping Turn 4. Rea wasn’t ready to concede victory though and made one last lunge into Turn 15, but went in too hot and rode through the gravel to salvage second place.

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That win marked Yamaha’s 100th in WorldSBK.

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This set up the scintillating prospect of another intriguing battle in the second feature length race. And the three main championship protagonists duly obliged…

The No.1 Yamaha once again made the holeshot, chased by the Arubi.it Ducati pair of Bautista and Michael Ruben Rinaldi, as well as the privateer Ducati Panegale of Alex Bassani (Motocorsa Racing). After a few laps the race settled down and the crowd were treated to the familiar sight of Razgatlıoğlu, Rea and Bautista in a three-way dog fight.

 

Bautista made his move at the beginning of Lap 13, blasting past ‘JR’s’ Kawasaki on the long start/finish straight. Sensing that the No.19 Ducati was making a break, Toprak also forced his way past the Ultsterman two laps later. He stalked the championship leader before making what would be the race winning pass at Turn 20 with a little over six laps remaining.

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Aware of the threat posed by the Ducati's straight-line speed advantage, Toprak put in a late race charge, setting the fastest lap with just two laps remaining. A slender lead of just over half a second was enough to seal his fifth race win from six races, and Yamaha's 101st in the class.

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For full race results please visit the WorldSBK/WorldWSS Results page: