WSBK Donington Park | Toprak Razgatlioglu clinches maiden career hat-trick | Jonathan Rea seals two podiums and closes deficit to Alvaro Bautista

Reigning champion Razgatlioglu remains third in the championship standings but reduced the gap to Spain’s Alvaro Bautista from 79 points to 43 after a faultless weekend for the Turkish rider.

Rea is second, 17 points down on Bautista after the fifth round of the series.

Six-time champion Rea finished as the runner-up in the Superpole race on Sunday and third in race two behind Razgatlioglu and Bautista.

Bautista stays top but the Ducati rider was left to rue a costly mistake in Saturday’s opening race, when he tucked the front at Goddards shortly after passing Rea to move into second position.

Ulsterman Rea did everything he could to try and find a way past Razgatlioglu in race two and clinch a coveted win at his home round in front of the many Northern Ireland fans who made the trip over to Donington, but ultimately the 26-year-old Pata Yamaha rider made no mistakes and proved impossible to pass on the brakes.

There was nothing between the leaders as they set a blistering pace at the front during the first half of the race, with Bautista close behind in third.

It wasn’t until after 15 laps that Razgatlioglu began to open a cushion over Rea, edging ahead by 0.8s as a change of traction control setting appeared to give him added impetus on the YZF-R1.

Rea began to drop back and the 33-year-old fell into the clutches of Bautista, who pounced on his inside into the Melbourne Loop with four laps to go.

Bautista quickly pulled a slight advantage over his title rival and went on to seal the runner-up spot, 1.1s down on Razgatlioglu.

For a brief moment it looked as though Michael Ruben Rinaldi on the Aruba.it Ducati could threaten Rea for the final place on the rostrum, but in the end the Kawasaki rider was a comfortable third, 1.5s behind Bautista and 2.4s in front of Italian Rinaldi.

BMW Motorrad’s Scott Redding finished fifth ahead of Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team).

Eugene Laverty was a retirement on the Bonovo Action BMW on a disappointing weekend for the Northern Ireland rider, who was 20th in Saturday’s race and 23rd in the Superpole race.

Earlier, Razgatlioglu secured his second win of the weekend in the 10-lap Superpole race by 1.089s from Rea, with Redding earning his maiden rostrum as a BMW rider in third. Bautista passed Lowes in the closing stages to snatch fourth place.

Wild card rider and British Superbike champion Tarran Mackenzie crashed out of the Superpole race on the McAMS Yamaha after tangling with Honda’s Xavi Vierge.

Mackenzie – 14th in race one on Saturday – earned a point in 15th in the final race of the weekend with fellow wild card rider Peter Hickman in 19th on the FHO Racing BMW.

Leon Haslam was a retirement on the Pedercini Kawasaki.

Round six of the championship takes place at Most in the Czech Republic from July 29-31 before the summer break, with the action resuming again at Magny-Cours in France from September 9-11.