WSB Magny-Cours: Victories for Toprak Razgatlioglu and Alvaro Bautista in France

Alvaro Bautista bounced back in the final World Superbike Championship race at Magny-Cours to take victory and reduce the damage done to his title hopes earlier in the weekend.

Up until race three it had been an eventful weekend for the reigning champion for all the wrong reasons. In Saturday’s opener, Bautista was battling inside the top three when he suddenly slowed with a technical problem lap three.

Bautista was able to restart the bike and despite falling to the back of the field, the Spaniard was able to battle his way back through to 10^th. However, main title rival Toprak Razgatlioglu had taken full advantage by winning the race and reducing the gap in the standings to 55 points.

“I had a good start, but I suddenly felt the engine had some problems because I felt like the power was too low,” Bautista explained to the official WorldSBK website. “In the first two laps, the engine wasn’t pushing like normal. When I got to Turn 5 on Lap 3, I re-opened the gas and the engine stopped. I thought maybe the power was not good in the first two laps because there was a problem. When I stopped the bike, I read a message on the display that it was on, only the engine stopped.

“I read a message that said I could start. It was the message that mechanics see when they switch on the bike. I tried to restart the bike and go, the engine started again, and I thought I’d go to the box with the bike. But the bike started to work like normal. The power was normal.”

The sprint race on Sunday proved to a controversial one for Bautista. Whilst fighting Razgatlioglu and his Aruba.it Ducati teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi, the championship leader ended up running into the back of Rinaldi at the tricky turn five hairpin.

Rinaldi crashed out as a result, whilst Bautista was left with damage to his front fairing. The latter almost came together with Alex Lowes in the aftermath too, the latter later retiring for separate reasons which turned out to be a knee injury. Lowes did not take any further part.

The incident between Bautista and Rinaldi was investigated by FIM Stewards but no further action was taken, and Bautista came home in second. It’s an incident which triggered much debate on social media and in the commentary box, especially as Brit Scott Redding was given long lap penalty following a collision in the opening corners with polesitter Garrett Gerloff.

We arrived altogether and, with the slipstream, I couldn’t stop the bike,” Bautista explained to WorldSBK. “The slipstream absorbed me, and I tried to avoid the impact, but Toprak went inside, and Michael had to pick up the bike and, for that reason, I found him in my way.

“It was unintentional and I’m sorry for Michael because he was really strong, and I think he could’ve fought for the win in the Superpole Race and also in Race 2.”

Razgatlioglu was victorious once again, his fourth straight win at Magny-Cours, to close the gap even further. Bautista’s podium was his 80^th in WorldSBK.

Onto race three and Bautista was finally able to get the better of Razgatlioglu. After making a great start, Bautista found himself battling with Jonathan Rea and Razgatlioglu as the red flag came out on lap five following a collision between Redding and Dominique Aegerter.

The latter was taken to the medical centre and was diagnosed with a suspected concussion. Redding was handed a double long lap penalty as a result, and would retire with a technical problem after the restart.

Once the race restarted, Bautista soon escaped from the clutches of Rea and Razgatlioglu, who were left to enjoy an entertaining battle of their own. The pair exchanged positions multiple times before the Turkish rider was able to gap his long-time rival to take second. Rea settled for third to complete a hat-trick of podiums in France.

Bautista crossed the line with a six-second advantage, but had led by 10 seconds at one stage. The former MotoGP racer now has a 57-point lead over Razgatlioglu in the championship standings.

The next round of the 2023 season takes place at Aragon on September 22-24.