Toprak Razgatlioglu reigned in the opening MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship race at Donington Park, setting a sensational pace to break his rivals and take the chequered flag in commanding style to celebrate victory for the ROKiT BMW Motorrad WSBK Team.

At the start of the race, Razgatlioglu led into Redgate for the first time ahead of Scott Redding and Andrea Locatelli with Nicolo Bulega dropping into third. Tarran Mackenzie crashed out on the opening lap, ending his hopes of a good performance in the opening race at his home round.

Razgatlioglu continued to string together an incredible run of fast laps to break the chasing pack with Redding and Bulega initially battling for second place with the chasing group of Locatelli and Alex Lowes.

Redding had a moment into the Fogarty Esses and was forced to run on when Bulega went for a move down the inside and that dropped him down to third and then had to try to close the gap to Bulega who had moved into second with his mistake.

The battle for the podium was then between Bulega, Redding, Alex Lowes and Locatelli. Lowes fired the Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK ahead of Redding with eleven laps to go, whilst Alvaro Bautista carved his way up the order in the second half of the race.

Lowes moved into second at the Melbourne Loop on lap 13 to ease Bulega back into third and into the clutches of Redding who was hounding him for the final podium position. It then became a three-way scrap for the final podium place between Bulega, Redding and Bautista.

On lap 17, Redding was again forced wide into the Fogarty Esses by Bautista and then was pushing to close the gap back to the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati teammates. However, it was heartbreak for Redding as he was forced to retire the Bonovo Action BMW with just five laps to go.

Bautisa and Bulega then were pushing for third, but the reigning champion and his teammate almost clashed at the Fogarty Esses and Bulega had to run on and rejoin. Bautista was able to finish in third ahead of his teammate with Jonathan Rea delivering an impressive top five finish for Pata Prometeon Yamaha.

Locatelli held onto sixth place just ahead of Danilo Petrucci and Michael van der Mark with GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team’s Dominique Aegerter and Remy Gardner completing the top ten.

Sam Lowes had a moment early in the race when he was pushed wide and he had to regroup after running through the gravel at the Old Hairpin. He was able to rejoin to end the race in 19th place.

MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship, Donington Park, Race 1 result:

1.     Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WSBK Team)

2.     Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK)

3.     Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati)

4.     Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati)

5.     Jonathan Rea (Pata Prometeon Yamaha)

6.     Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha)

7.     Danilo Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Team)

8.     Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WSBK Team)

9.     Dominique Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team)

10.  Remy Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team)