What a huge battle between Álvaro Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu in Portimão in race 2! Lap after lap, the rivals exchanged the lead with each other but in the end the championship leader was stronger and beat the opponent on the finish straight, as happened so many times today. The Spaniard is now with one hand on the title, but the decisions are postponed to the round in Jerez.
First match point for Bautista in the Superbikes World Championship, with the Spaniard only needing to finish the race with seven points more than Toprak Razgatlioglu to be crowned champion with still one round to go.
Razgatlioglu got the best start and immediately took the lead in the race, ahead of Bautista and Andrea Locatelli, when Xavi Vierge crashed. Jonathan Rea and Scott Redding were also involved in the incident.
Hafizh Syahrin was still the first to retire from the race, as Vierge continued on track despite being behind the competition.
On the second lap, Michael Rinaldi wanted to leave a good impression in Portugal and moved up to third place, behind his teammate and #54.
The battle between Razgatlioglu and Bautista was intense, with the Spaniard overtaking the opponent but then the opponent returning the move and taking the lead. Less than two tenths separated the riders. Rinaldi was 1.6s behind.
Bautista briefly regained the lead by overtaking the Yamaha rider on the straight, but in the next corner, the Yamaha rider returned to the front of the race.
With four laps completed, only 0.091s separated #1 from #54, so it was no surprise that Bautista took the lead again on the next lap.
In the span of two laps, the Ducati Spaniard gained 0.507s on Razgatlioglu while Rinaldi was 1.997s behind. At this moment, Bautista had 60 more points than Razgatlioglu in the live championship standings.
The Turkish rider did not give up and not only closed the gap to the Spaniard but also overtook him shortly after. Everything was still open at this point.
With ten laps completed, here was the top ten in Portimão:
Remy Gardner abandoned the race, just like Loris Baz a few laps ago. Razgatlioglu was once again the leader, proving that this race would be fiercely contested… but Bautista showed the power of the Panigale V4R on the straights and managed to move ahead.
It was constant: in every lap, the two opponents swapped positions. Rea, recovering, was already in 12th place with six laps to go. This benefited Rinaldi, who was now 1.3s behind, when he had been twice as far back.
Entering the 16th lap, the leader in Portimão was Bautista, who consistently moved to the front on the main straight.
With two laps to go, the duel continued. Rinaldi remained in third place with a gap of 1.6s, Garrett Gerloff was fourth, and Locatelli fifth.
