Jonathan Rea seventh in Superpole race at Magny-Cours in France as Toprak Razgatlioglu extends title advantage
Jonathan Rea finished seventh in the Superpole race at Magny-Cours in France on Sunday as Toprak Razgatlioglu extended his lead at the top of the World Superbike Championship.
Rea was wiped out of the opening race on Saturday after being caught up in an incident on the first lap when Italian rider Yari Montella collided with Andrea Iannone.
The Pata Maxus Yamaha rider rejoined the race after returning to pit lane, but Rea later retired with eight laps remaining.
Rea qualified 13th fastest on Saturday in Superpole but felt his pace did not reflect his grid position, and he underlined that assertion by climbing the order in Sunday’s 10-lap sprint race to finish seventh.
Reflecting on his misfortune in Saturday’s opener, Rea said: “I’m gutted about today because in all honesty, from yesterday [Friday] and this morning, I felt really good with my R1 – more than even the results showed.
“We made a bit of a team mistake in Superpole with timing and I started from P13, but made a great start.
“[I] took great track position in T1 and T2, then I was P7 or P8 when I went into T13 behind Iannone and Montella came up the inside and crashed into both of us and ended my race.
“It was frustrating because my bike was on top of everybody’s and I lost time to get it free. We did a quick pit stop just to check everything before doing a few laps just to find a rhythm for Sunday because my race was all but over.
“That was as much as we could salvage, there was no points to grab.”
Rea is competing in his final WSBK races after announcing his decision to retire from full-time racing at the end of this season.
Razgatlioglu won by over eight seconds on Saturday from Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Ducati) and the Turkish rider doubled up with another win in the Superpole race, beating Bulega by 3.7s with third going to Alex Lowes (bimota by Kawasaki Racing Team).
Razgatlioglu has now won a record 10 races at Magny-Cours, surpassing the record of nine victories previously held by Rea.
The MotoGP-bound BMW rider now leads Bulega by 34 points ahead of the final race on Sunday (14:30 BST).
Razgatlioglu is bidding to retain his world crown and is in pole position to win a second championship for BMW, with three rounds remaining after France.